Gas projects

Linking up to Serbia’s gas grid would cost Bulgaria 60 million euro and could be accomplished by 2013. One proposal is to extend the transit grid from Doupnitsa to Nis in Serbia, but the alternative of linking directly from Sofia offers the benefit of a shorter pipeline and a link directly into the distribution grid. Pipeline capacity has not been decided.

The link to Greece, also envisioned by 2013, would cost about 120 million euro and would have an annual capacity of between three and five billion cu m. BEH signed a memorandum with a joint venture between Depa and Edison to build the link-up, but is still awaiting a response from the European Commission, due on December 18, on whether the project will receive EU funding. Jacobs Consultancy is close to finishing the preliminary feasibility study for the project.

The cheaper alternative is the link to Romania, which would cost only 27.6 million euro and would have an annual capacity of 1.5 billion cu m. The link-up is expected to be completed by 2013, with an application for EU funding submitted in July 2009 and a company picked to carry out the feasibility study.

By far the biggest two projects are, however, the planned Nabucco and South Stream pipelines. Nabucco is advancing steadily, applying for 200 million euro in EU funding and planning to seal all construction contracts by end-2010. The pipeline would have an annual capacity of 31 billion cu m once fully operational, but is expected to launch at a lower capacity in 2013.

The rival South Stream pipeline targets 2015 as the start of operations and studies concerning the technical details for the Bulgarian stretch, which would give a clear cost estimate, are ongoing. Reportedly, Russian state-owned gas firm Gazprom has once again requested that Bulgaria allows the use of its gas distribution network for the project, which Sofia has stoutly opposed so far.

Bulgaria’s Bulgartransgaz agreed in November to set up a joint venture with Azerbaijan’s state-owned gas company, which would explore the prospect of delivering one billion cu m of compressed natural gas a year, but the project timeline and costs remain unknown. The project would require building a pipeline through Georgia, as well as the construction of a compression station, along with the acquisition of two compressed gas tankers.

In the meantime, Bulgaria plans to expand by 2011 the capacity of its sole gas storage facility at Chiren from 450 million cu m to 850 million, which is estimated to cost 250 million euro. Czech firm Moravske Naftovi Doly has been contracted to prepare the technical project by March 2010.


Kapital weekly, issue 48