BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 7. The remaining tranches for the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB), envisioning the transportation of Azerbaijani gas, are expected to be received by the end of 2022, the ICGB AD project company told Trend.
“ICGB, which is now fully certified as an independent system operator and will operate the IGB pipeline commercially after launch, hasn’t yet received the full amount of funds allocated for the project. The final requests are expected to be announced in the fourth quarter [of this year]," the company said.
The total approved budget of the IGB project amounting to 240 million euros has been secured by a long-term loan of 110 million euros from the European Investment Bank (EIB), 45 million euros - from the European Energy Program for Recovery (EEPR), 39 million euro - the Operational Program "Innovations and Competitiveness" (OPIC), and by participation in the capital of shareholders - the Bulgarian Energy Holding and IGI (Interconnector Greece-Italy) Poseidon company.
IGB will provide gas transportation and supplies from new sources, which will make it a key element of Bulgaria's energy security and part of the national plan to diversify gas sources.
The gas pipeline's pumping capacity will be three billion cubic meters, with the possibility of increasing it to five billion cubic meters. Half of the interconnector’s capacity has been already reserved.