IGB gas pipeline planning upgrades next year to boost throughput capacity

The operator of the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (ICGB) gas pipeline is planning upgrades next year to boost throughput capacity from the current 3 billion cubic metres per annum to 5 bcm per annum, Report informs, citing Upstream Online.

The privately owned link between Greece and Bulgaria is vital to ensuring pipeline and liquefied natural gas deliveries to southern Europe, including Ukraine and Moldova, as alternatives to Russian pipeline supplies via the subsea TurkStream line across the Black Sea to Türkiye.

The pipeline connects to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), making Bulgaria a part of the Southern Gas Corridor that transports gas from Azerbaijan to Europe, with Brussels laying strong hopes for this former Soviet country to boost supplies to replace lost Russian volumes.

Its operator, also named ICGB, said it received “significant market interest” for greater capacity after offering non-binding deals to market players.

The binding phase is now expected to begin in July, when energy traders and shippers will commit to booking the extra capacity, ICGB executive officers George Satlas and Teodora Georgieva said.

Launched in October 2022, the interconnector has 39 registered users, with most of its capacity already booked for the new gas year.

It currently supplies about half of Bulgaria’s gas needs since Russia’s Gazprom halted deliveries in 2022 after Bulgaria rejected a change to terms and conditions.
The expansion project will encompass the installation of additional filtering, heating, reducing, and measuring equipment along the current route and the integration of an advanced communication and management system into the existing infrastructure, according to ICGB. Work will be carried out at both ends of the pipeline, specifically at gas metering station No. 1 in Komotini in Greece and station No. 2 in Stara Zagora in Bulgaria.

ICGB said that planned capacity expansion has been discussed during a recent meeting of the transmission operators of Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary.