VOULIAGMENI, Greece - The Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) can provide gas to the whole region through other interconnectors, Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) Executive Director Jordan Georgiev told New Europe on 28 March. He said the project aims to be ready to transport gas in 2014. “It can actually be for the whole region. It’s not absolutely linked to Bulgaria,” Georgiev said on the sidelines of an energy conference at a resort near Athens. Bulgaria is 90% dependent on Russian gas.
Georgiev is also a Member of the Board of ICGB, Bulgaria. ICGB AD is a 50-50 joint venture between BEH and IGI Poseidon, which will implement and operate the IGB Project. He said IGB does not depend very much on gas from Azerbaijan. “It can be Azeri gas, it can also be LNG (liquefied natural gas); it can be multi-source. The idea is, of course, to bring competitive gas,” he said. Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz consortium has already chosen Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) over the Interconnector Turkey-Greece-Italy (ITGI) as a priority route for export of Azerbaijani gas to Italy via Greece and Albania. “We are not linked to ITGI in the sense that we actually rely on their sources and we’re not linked to TAP. We can bring gas from LNG sources, from Caspian using the existing systems,” Georgiev said.
The IGB representative also noted that the pipeline is open to transporting gas from the eastern Mediterranean. “It’s a huge potential,” he said. Earlier at the conference on 28 March, Energy Ministers from Israel, Cyprus and Greece vowed to increase co-operation to exploit natural gas deposits in the Mediterranean, but warned that large-scale exports could take a decade. “We are going to closely monitor the developments in eastern Mediterranean,” Georgiev said. “There are several different options how to bring gas to Greece,” he said, adding that it depends on when it’s going to be available. “There should be a decision how this gas is going to be brought to Greece and basically from Greece to south-eastern Europe through IGB,” he said.
Cyprus’ Commerce, Industry and Tourism Minister Neoklis Sylikiotis said there is a study to build a pipeline from Cyprus to Greece by Greek state-owned gas company DEPA but “there is nothing concrete at the moment”. For the time being Cyprus is considering building a plant to liquefy natural gas, he told New Europe on the sidelines of the conference. “This is the only realistic choice given the facts of the region,” he said. “Mainly we’re looking at European markets. We have to find investors, secure markets but we’re at an early stage.”
Regarding, energy security, Sylikiotis said Europe has to secure its infrastructure. “Europe must find a way to build and fortify the infrastructure in its Member States in order to ensure energy security,” he said. He acknowledged that Europe is relying on Russian natural gas but stressed that there is a big need for more gas supplies, especially following the phasing out of nuclear plants after the Fukushima disaster. “We should not view this as a competition for natural gas supplies with Russia. There is increasing demand for cleaner forms of energy like natural gas as well as renewables,” he said.
KGeropoulos@NEurope.eu
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Energy & Russian Affairs Editor, New Europe
Kostis Geropoulos is the Energy & Russian Affairs Editor of New Europe newspaper.
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