BULGARIA OPENS RECONSTRUCTED GAS COMPRESSOR STATION PETRICH

The reconstructed gas compressor station near the town of Petrich, South-Western Bulgaria, was opened on 13th of June.

The event was attended by Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, Minister of Energy Temenuzhka Petkova, the Executive Director of the gas transmission operator Bulgartransgas, Georgi Gegov, the Mayor of the town of Petrich Dimitar Bruchkov and local business representatives.

17,000 million euro were invested in the upgrade of the facility and is the first opportunity to diversify the supply of natural gas.

Bulgaria will be able to receive up to 3 million cubic metres of natural gas per day from Greece as a result of the modernized facility.

The compressor gas station in Petrich is the fourth  modernized one after the compressor stations Ihtiman, Strandzha and Loznets on the transit gas transmission network through the territory of Bulgaria to Turkey, Greece and Macedonia.

The energy minister noted that the upgrade of these compressor stations led to 50% decrease in the expenses for gas transit.

The invested funds will be returned in 2-3 years. Bulgaria is working strongly on the diversification of the gas sources through building interconnector links with the neighbouring countries.

The Bulgaria-Romania interconnector gas pipeline is expected to start operating in August and transit the first amounts of gasi. Its capacity is one billion and a half cubic metres.

The construction of the interconnector with Greece is in progress. It will deliver 3 billion cubic metres of gas per year.

The construction Bulgaria-Turkey pipeline is still at planning stage.

Bulgaria recently signed a memorandum for the supply of 10-15 bln. cubic metres annually from the Austrian gas station "Baumgarten" via the Slovak pipeline "Eastern Circle".