site.btaEnergy Minister Petkova Meets with US Ambassador Rubin

Sofia, July 25 (BTA) - Meeting with US Ambassador in Sofia Eric S. Rubin, Energy Minister Temenouzhka Petkova said the construction of the Greece-Bulgaria gas interconnector is one of the government's top priorities in the energy sector and is key to the diversification of routes and sources of natural gas both for Bulgaria and the whole of Southeastern Europe.

The project is developing as scheduled so that construction is to start in 2018 and the interconnector is to go into operation in 2020, said Petkova, quoted by her Ministry. A public procurement procedure for the selection of a construction company will be launched this autumn. At the same time, a new market test for the undistributed capacity of the gas pipeline will be launched.

The 35 million euro needed for the project is available from Operational Programme Innovations and Competitiveness. The documents have been submitted to the programme's Managing Authority and to the European Commission.

Petkova and Ambassador Rubin also discussed the future operation of the thermal power plants of the Maritsa East Complex (US-owned AES Maritza East 1 and ContourGlobal Maritsa East 3) in light of the European Parliament's recently approved reference document on best available techniques for large combustion plants. The Energy Minister said it was possible to ask for a derogation from the new standards. To this end, each installation has to apply individually and to prove that the costs of meeting the new environmental standards by far outweigh the benefits to the environment.