“Chiren” squared – or how Bulgaria can break with Russian gas
There are two ways for Bulgaria to provide alternatives to Russian natural gas – building interconnectors with Greece and Serbia and increasing the capacity of the Chiren gas storage facility. Both have long been declared projects of national importance critical to the country’s energy security. However, they are not ready. On the other hand, Boyko Borissov’s government has given priority to the “Turkish Stream”, which provides an opportunity for Russian President Vladimir Putin to bypass Ukraine and does not bring any real benefits to Bulgaria.
That is why I envisage the EU’s plans to have two thirds of Russian gas consumption by the end of this year, Bulgaria looks in a complicated situation. The gas connection with Greece is likely to be decommissioned in the second half of the year and will provide for the import of the additional volume of Azerbaijani gas under a contract for 1 billion cubic meters per year. However, this is only ⅓ of the country’s consumption and if you do not intend to receive additional supplies (of LNG) the effect will not be very large. The interconnector with Serbia has not even started, and only this week Bulgartransgaz announced public tenders for the expansion of the Chiren gas storage facility. In the best of circumstances, the project could be completed by the end of 2024, or just 5-6 years before natural gas participation in the EU fades into the background due to decarbonisation and energy transformation plans.
What is important about “Chiren”
The annual consumption of natural gas in Bulgaria is about 3 billion cubic meters. However, this is not constant, and over a third of the quantities are served during the winter months. And this is where the role of gas storage in Chiren comes in – it has a working volume of 0.55 billion. cubic meters (20-25% of winter consumption in the country) and is filled in the summer to be able to store gas to cover the growth of consumption in the winter. Accordingly, if it can store more, Bulgaria will not be pressured as it is now – by March 14 the repository was only 18.2% full, which is its lowest value for this time of year.
Inner Bulgaria is somewhat privileged in this regard because, for example, Greece, Serbia and Northern Macedonia do not report their own repositories. “Chiren” was first a gas facility, which was depleted in the 1960s and converted into a gas storage facility. In time, you will receive 2.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas from it. That’s right, with certain technologies, its storage capacity can now increase significantly – from the current 0.55 billion cubic meters to over 1 billion cubic meters. And so it can cover half of the winter consumption on the page.