The gas connection Greece-Bulgaria already has Act 15 for the territory of the country
The commissioning of the pipeline is on schedule and it will begin commercial operation on October 1st
Part of the route of the gas connection Bulgaria-Greece (IGB). Photo: BGNES
The Greece-Bulgaria interconnector already has Act 15 for the territory of Bulgaria. Procedures for putting the gas pipeline into operation are progressing according to schedule and it will begin commercial operation on October 1, the project company announced.
Act 15 certifies that the equipment is completed and technically sound, and the builder – the Greek company AVAX, is handed over as a completed object on the basis of – independent gas transmission operator ICGB.
“This is the last step we have to take towards obtaining Act 16 Provision in Bulgaria and the corresponding Use Permit. October as planned,” said ICGB executive directors Teodora Georgieva and Georgios Satlas.
In order to optimize the process of putting the site into operation and issuing a Use Permit, ICGB sent requests for preliminary opinions or necessary documents to 27 control bodies, municipal administrations, operating companies and others. As a result, to date, positive opinions for putting the IGB into operation have been received from all requested parties. In order to further reduce the administrative deadlines, all the necessary documentation has been previously provided to the DNSK and has already been checked. “We await the convening of the Act 16 committee, we have completed all the necessary steps,” ICGB executives said.
Georgieva and Satlas emphasized that the necessary permits are being worked on in parallel in Greece, so that before the end of September the facility will be licensed on Greek territory as well. The 72-hour tests, during which natural gas is transported at working pressure in the direction from Komotini to Stara Zagora, have already been carried out. “There are no technical hiccups, everything is ready for operation,” reported two executives.
With a view to the temporary commissioning of the IGB for the start of the heating season, the final works on the project have been divided into phases, with today’s signing of Act 15 between the ICGB, the construction company, the construction and author’s supervision marking the end of the first phase of the works. It contains all the elements that are of priority importance for starting the commercial operation of the gas pipeline. In a separate stage, secondary activities are identified, which the Greek builder AVAX should complete according to the contract, without directly affecting the operation of the facility – e.g. asphalt laying, anti-erosion measures, spare optical cable. Work on them continues, and their final implementation will be checked by both the contracting authority and the process, and will be the subject of a separate act.
The IGB is of key importance for reducing the security of gas supplies and for ensuring the diversification of natural gas sources for Bulgaria and the region of South-Eastern Europe. The project connects Bulgaria with the Southern Gas Corridor and will enable secure supplies from a variety of sources to a number of countries in South-Eastern and Central Europe, including Moldova and Ukraine, the project company said.
The Minister of Energy in the caretaker government, Rosen Hristov, already a month ago expressed confidence that Mr the Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) interconnector will flow gas on October 1.