site.bta Larger State Guarantee for Gas Interconnector with Greece to Be Budgeted in 2016 - Energy Minister

Larger State Guarantee for Gas Interconnector with Greece to Be Budgeted in 2016 - Energy Minister

Sofia, October 15 (BTA) - The Government-supporting
parliamentary parties have considered the need and possibility
of increasing the amount of the state guarantee under the
project for the construction of a natural gas interconnector
with Greece, Bulgarian Energy Minister Temenouzhka Petkova said
at the Fourth EU-Southeast Europe Summit here on Thursday.

She recalled that the Government confirmed an 80 million euro
state guarantee for this project in the 2015 state budget.
"These steps show the importance of the project not only for
Bulgaria and Greece but also for the energy security of all
Central and Southeastern Europe," she commented.

Petkova, who conferred with her Greek counterpart on Wednesday,
told journalists that the final investment decision on the
interconnector with Greece is expected to be signed within a
month. In her words, several technical points remain to be
sorted out, which will take two or three weeks.

Asked about the increase of the gas pipeline capacity, which was
 mentioned on Wednesday by Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav
Donchev, the Energy Minister said that they are working on it.
"We would very much like this to happen," she said. "The
capacity of this interconnector is 3,000 to 5,000 million cu m
of gas, but we are exploring every option that would enable us
to transmit larger quantities," Petkova said. She specified,
though, that this phase of the project should be completed and
the final investment decision should be signed first.

She said that the interconnector with Romania is in an advanced
phase and hopes that this first interconnector in Bulgaria will
be ready at the beginning of 2016. What remains to be completed
is 3 km under the Danube River bed, she specified.

Bulgaria has arranged financing under Operational Programme
Competitiveness for the construction of the interconnector with
Serbia. All requisite public procurement procedures have been
initiated, she added.

EU funds will finance a feasibility study for the interconnector
 with Turkey, the Energy Minister said. The study will specify
the technical and financial parameters of this project, she
added.

* * *

The Greek daily "Kathimerini" wrote on Wednesday that the latest
 in a series of delays of the Bulgaria-Greece gas interconnector
 has spurred into action US diplomacy, as US State Department
Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs
Amos J. Hochstein arrived on a blitz visit to Athens on Tuesday.
 The US envoy conferred with Greek Minister of State Nikos
Pappas and with Environment and Energy Minister Panagiotis
Skourletis, after which a trilateral meeting was planned with
the participation of Bulgarian Energy Minister Temenouzhka
Petkova.

"The interconnector is high on the agenda of US energy diplomacy
 because of the possibility to extricate the Balkan countries
from their dependence on gas supplies from Gazprom,"
"Kathimerini" writes.