According to a telegram from the Bulgarian news agency BTA, due to delays in the construction of the Greece-Bulgaria gas interconnector, the Bulgarian side insists that from 1 January 2022, the Greek group constructing the facility should be subject to daily sanctions. the contract, said Bulgaria’s acting Minister of Energy Andrei Zifkov, speaking to Parliament during Question Time.
In case of delay, the contractor owes a fine of 90,000 euros per day but not more than 10% of the total fixed price of 144.8 million euros.
Zifkov hopes, however, that the imposition of sanctions will guarantee that the project is not delayed further and will ensure completion on the agreed schedule, which envisions the pipeline starting on July 1, 2022.
The minister described the pace of work on the pipelines in recent months as “extremely unsatisfactory”.
The initial deadline for completion of the project was April 2021 and was extended until December 31, 2021 due to the pandemic and technical issues. The project company then gave the construction company six months to deliver the facility ready for commissioning.
Due to the delay in the operation of the interconnection pipeline, in January-September 2021, Bulgargaz was forced to import only 250 million cubic meters of the annual volume of one billion cubic meters of natural gas, under a contract with Azerj. Azeri gas is currently much cheaper than Russian gas, which is priced at 70% of the prices on European gas exchanges.
The ICGB pipeline is 182 km long, of which 151 km in Bulgaria and 31 km in Greece. It stretches from Komotini (northeastern Greece), passes through Kirtzali, Haskovo and Dimitrovgrad to Stara Zagora (southeastern Bulgaria).
The interconnector is part of the vertical gas corridor connecting Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary that provides access to natural gas and LNG from the Southern Gas Corridor to south-eastern and central Europe and Ukraine.
The Greece-Bulgaria gas interconnection project is crucial for the country and the region due to its strategic importance in achieving diversification of gas sources and routes.
The facility will improve energy connectivity in Southeast Europe, as it is being built in synergy with other major existing and future projects, such as TAP and the LNG terminal in Alexandroupolis, where Bulgaria is a full shareholder.
The project is one of the key energy priorities of the governments of Greece and Bulgaria and is largely supported by the European Union, the European Investment Bank and foreign partners, including the United States and Azerbaijan.
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