site.btaBorissov: Bulgaria Works Hard for 100% State-run Gas Transit

Borissov: Bulgaria Works Hard for 100% State-run Gas Transit

Ihtiman, Western Bulgaria, October 13 (BTA) - Prime Minister 
Boyko Borissov said Bulgaria is working hard to ensure that 
everything involved in gas transit is 100 per cent state run. He
  participated in the launch of a compressor station and a 
turbine unit of Bulgartransgaz near Ihtiman.

Borissov also said: "We are doing this to be competitive. When I
 sit down at the negotiating table, I will know that we have the
  best gas transit system in which billions of leva have been
invested, so we can claim that Bulgaria should become a gas 
distribution hub."

He noted the importance of gas interconnectors with Greece, 
Serbia, Romania and Macedonia. "With the new compressor's 10 
megawatts and about 20 MW we already had, Bulgaria can transit 
billions of cubic metres of natural gas," said Borissov. The 
expansion of the gas storage facility at Chiren is starting next
 week. 

The Prime Minister commented that if Bulgaria had a large gas
storage facility, it would buy cheaper natural gas in the
summer. He expressed a hope that 20 to 30 billion cu m of gas
would be transited through Bulgaria in the coming years.

Energy Minister Temenouzhka Petkova said Bulgartransgaz invested
 heavily in the modernization of its gas transmission network,
which is important for the energy security of both Bulgaria and
Southeastern Europe. The modernization and rehabilitation of the
 Strandja, Petrich and Lozenets compressor stations is to be
completed by the end of 2016.

Petkova recalled that the European Commission named seven key
energy projects at an energy ministerial in Dubrovnik earlier
this year, of which three are Bulgarian projects: the
interconnectors with Greece and Serbia and a project for
modernization and rehabilitation of the national gas
transmission networks.

Ambassador Roderick W. Moore, the interim Charge d'Affairs at
the US Embassy, said the modernization of the Ihtiman compressor
 station was a big step forward in Bulgaria's energy
infrastructure.

Bulgartransgaz CEO Georgi Gegov said expectations were that
larger amounts of natural gas would be stored in Chiren from
2016. Gas development drilling is starting at Chiren, which will
 make it possible to increase compression and production from
4.2 million cu m to over 5 million cu m a day. Thus it will be
possible to draw more gas at times of crisis. With a larger
storage facility it will also be possible to compress more gas
when it is cheapest, Gegov explained.

Approached to comment when more gas will start to be compressed
in Chiren, Gegov said that the first drilling is expected to be
commissioned in 2016, and the second one shortly after that.

Gegov said that in addition to the availability of gas in
Chiren, it is important to have it at the lowest possible price.
 He said that gas is being pumped in Chiren in big quantities at
 the moment because its price is 30 per cent lower than at the
start of the year. "This means savings to the tune millions of
leva," Gegov said, adding that the Chiren facility currently
holds about 430 million cu m of gas and the compressing
continues.

Gegov also said that ten days ago the project for the general
expansion of the Chiren facility worth more than 200 million
euro has been included in the EU list of projects of common
interest (PCIs).

The Ihtiman compressor station is worth 33-34 million leva. The
facility reinforces the gas transit system in the direction of
Greece and Macedonia, Gegov said, adding that three other
compressor stations are to be unveiled soon. He said the total
value of all compressor station projects stands at 204 million
leva.