In the first year of the commercial operations, 16,4 million MWh of gas equivalent to electricity was transported via Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB), which delivers Azerbaijani gas to Bulgaria, Ednews reports citing ICGB project company (project operator).

“Throughout its inaugural year, IGB has upheld an impeccable record, meeting all daily nominations with no major interruptions in gas flow. This achievement is due to the strict implementation of our operations procedures, but also to ICGB’s dedicated team of outstanding professionals”, said ICGB’s Executive Officers Teodora Georgieva and George Satlas.

Currently, IGB has a total of 39 registered users. The pipeline operates with technical capacity of 3 bcm/y, with most of its capacity already booked for the new gas year. The interconnector now supplies approximately half of Bulgaria's internal gas consumption requirements. With the evolving security dynamics in the region, IGB quickly became key infrastructure that can also enable natural gas transport to Moldova and Ukraine via the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline.

ICGB has recently initiated the start of the incremental capacity procedure to assess the market demand in expanding IGB’s capacity to 5 bcm/y, with encouraging signals emerging from the non-binding phase.

The Greece-Bulgaria interconnector connects Bulgaria to the Southern Gas Corridor and is part of the Vertical Gas Corridor. The pipeline strengthens the energy connectivity and security in the region, providing access to natural gas from new, diversified sources," says ICGB.