Next Saturday, October 1st, a new era for the energy map of SE Europe dawns, with the start of the flow of natural gas from Greece to Bulgaria and from there (later) to the rest of the Balkans up to Ukraine, via the Greek-Bulgarian interconnector IGB conductor. In a solemn ceremony in Sofia, the first quantities of gas, coming from the south, will be “welcomed” by the leaders of the Balkans as well as the president of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
Bulgarian President Rumen Radev has invited Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who will be accompanied by Energy Minister Kostas Skrekas, the Presidents of Serbia and North Macedonia Aleksandar Vucic and Stevo Pentarovski, the Prime Minister of Romania Nikolae Ciuka and the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.
As a difficult energy winter approaches, Bulgaria is strengthening its “tanks” with Azeri natural gas that will arrive from Greece. The 182 km long IGB pipeline starts from Komotini and enters the Bulgarian network in the city of Stara Zagora. In the first phase, it will transport 3 billion square meters annually. of natural gas, but the total transmission capacity will be 5 billion cubic meters.
Its commercial operation begins with a flow of gas from Azerbaijan, which will “fall” into the IGB, at its intersection with the passing TAP in Komotini, to continue the “journey” to Bulgaria and from there, through other interconnecting pipelines, in Serbia, North Macedonia, Romania, Moldova and Ukraine – later, maybe more.
However, from the end of 2023, significant quantities of the liquefied LNG of Alexandroupoli will also fall into the Greek-Bulgarian “pipe”, where it will reach ice columns by tankers and be regasified in the FSRU floating facilities under construction. From the marine platform, it will be channeled to the TAP on land, and a little further down, at the level of Komotini, through the IGB, it will leave for the markets of SE Europe.
Last May, in Alexandroupolis, the leaders of the directly interested Balkan countries met at the inauguration of the construction of the FSRU, and there the construction group’s commitment that the project will be completed by the end of next year was announced, while a construction plan for a second LNG regasification platform west of Alexandroupoli.
It becomes clear, after all this, that Greece is becoming a gateway for energy entry into South-Eastern Europe, which at the same time is helping in its business of independence from Russian energy sources. The Balkan countries have, until now, been most dependent on Russian natural gas and oil, with Bulgaria meeting 90% of its needs from Russia. In fact, Moscow, due to Sofia’s stance on the Ukrainian issue, has already cut off the supply of natural gas.
With the start of the operation of the IGB, however, the energy landscape changes and the Russian monopoly is “broken”, with the first step being the operation of the Greek-Bulgarian axis. Another pipeline that will “tie” Greece even more tightly to the European energy networks, has been agreed to be built on the Thessaloniki-Skopje axis, to transport gas to North Macedonia and from there further north to Serbia, Kosovo, etc. . With the energy pipelines as well as road axes, land and sea (ports), the geopolitical position of Greece in the region of SE Europe is being upgraded in general.
