Natural gas storage deal with Bulgaria
Greece and Bulgaria are close to signing a memorandum of understanding for Sofia to maintain strategic natural gas reserves on behalf of Athens at the Chiren facilities in the northwest of the country, where Greece’s Public Gas Corporation (DEPA) has already installed quantities equivalent to around 400,000 megawatt-hours.
This forms part of the two countries’further cooperation on energy sufficiency issues in view of the winter season, discussed at the working dinner Minister of Environment and Energy Kostas Skrekas hosted for the Bulgarian delegation headed by Deputy Prime Minister of Bulgaria Hristo Alexiev on Thursday.
Greece does not have any gas storage spaces besides Revithoussa; therefore, according to an EU regulation, it should maintain strategic reserves equal to 15% of its annual consumption in another EU country. In this context, it has already signed an MoU with Italy, where the Greek importing companies have started storing gas, and another with Bulgaria is expected now.
According to information, the plan is to offset the quantities that will be stored by Greek companies in Bulgaria with quantities of either Azeri gas or LNG intended for the neighboring country. In other words, Greece will be able to retain the corresponding quantities instead of waiting for their transfer from Bulgaria, thereby ensuring it will be able to use them in any case.
The contingency plan by the Regulatory Authority for Energy forces gas importing companies to maintain stock from November 1, 2022 until March 21, 2023 either in Italy or another European country, provided the cost is not higher than what it has determined for Italy. Total reserves amount to the equivalent of 1.14 terawatt-hours.
Bulgaria, for its part, is looking forward to further assistance from Greece for its gas supply, as this winter is the first it will need to go without Russian gas, which until April 2022, when Russia turned off the tap, covered almost 100% of the total annual demand of 33 TWh.
In the period after April and especially since last August with the launch of Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB), Greece has evolved into a key gateway for and at the same time a source of natural gas for the supply of the Bulgarian market.
