Energy Minister in Sofia next week for conference, IGB talks

Energy Minister Panos Skourletis will travel to Sofia next week for an energy conference and take the opportunity to meet with his Bulgarian counterpart Temenuzhka Petkova for a discussion on the prospective IGB Greek-Bulgarian interconnector’s upcoming market test, crucial for the project’s development.

Greek and Bulgarian officials are working frantically to prepare the market test’s second round, entailing binding bids for allocation of pipeline capacity to traders. Though scheduled for October, this second round has been delayed and will now most likely take place in November or December.

Both sides appear confident that the market test’s second round will produce positive results and give the green light for the pipeline infrastructure project’s development.

Speaking at Global Oil and Gas, an energy conference held in Athens yesterday, Dimitris Manolis, Head of International Activities and Projects at DEPA, Greece’s Public Gas Corporation, offered details on the IGB project.

The DEPA official noted that environmental permits for the project have been granted by authorities in both in Greece and Bulgaria, while the project’s entire route has also been endorsed.

A target date for the IGB’s commercial launch has been set for the second half of 2019, Manolis told the Athens conference.