Two deals to be signed with Bulgaria
The results of long-term energy diplomacy between Greece and Bulgaria in the field of oil and natural gas will be ratified on Thursday in Athens by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Bulgarian President Rumen Radev with the signing of two bilateral agreements that have been in the works since October.
The first concerns the implementation of the Burgas-Alexandroupoli pipeline for the transport of oil in reverse flow from its original design.
The project was designed to transport quantities of Russian oil to the Mediterranean through the port of Alexandroupoli, as a bypass of the Bosporus Strait, but was canceled in 2011 with Bulgaria’s withdrawal. The idea of building the project resurfaced amid the energy crisis, this time with the oil flowing in reverse: From the port of Alexandroupoli it will reach refineries on the Black Sea in Bulgaria.
The second intergovernmental agreement to be signed Thursday in Athens concerns the storage of 0.3 terawatt-hours of natural gas in Bulgarian storage facilities on behalf of Greece and, at the same time, corresponding amounts of LNG storage at Revithoussa near Athens on behalf of Greece’s northern neighbor.
