Authorities involved with the IGB Greek-Bulgarian Interconenctor have expressed confidence over the project’s development, noting that the latest developments, both on entrepreunerial and political levels, ensure its actualization.

Much of the optimism has to do with a memorandum of cooperation signed just days ago and overseen by Maros Sefcovic, European Commission vice president responsible for Energy Union.

The gas infrastructure route, planned to run vertically to Ukraine, according to the memorandum, will utilize existing national networks for a pipeline that will have access to both LNG and natural gas transmitted through the TAP (Trans Adriatic Pipeline) project, planned to cut across northern Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea to supply Europe from the south.

The memorandum’s signing is expected to provide new impetus to the project’s development.

Meanwhile, one company that had taken part in the IGB’s first-round market test, for non-binding allocation of capacity, has withdrawn and been replaced by another. The market test procedure’s second round of binding bids is now expected to be delayed and not be completed in October, as had been scheduled. Instead, the second round will now most likely take place in November and December.

A considerable portion of the capacity requested through the first-stage market test is based on the prospective development of an LNG terminal in Alexandroupoli.

Considering the latest developments, the IGB project is expected to be endorsed by the European Commission even if its entire capacity is not taken up during the market test’s second round of binding bids, according to authorities linked to the project.

The IGB promises to offer a key alternative energy source in the eastern Balkans, all the way up to Ukraine.