Bulgaria’s gas transmission system operator Bulgartransgaz has developed specific projects to increase the capacity and to ensure the possibility of transporting additional natural gas quantities from south to north. This was confirmed by the company’s Executive Director Vladimir Malinov, during his meeting with Geoffrey Pyatt, Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources at the US Department of State.
“The Vertical Gas Corridor will ensure energy security for Bulgaria and the wider Eastern European region by making the most of the existing infrastructure and building the necessary additional infrastructure,” he said. “There has been a clear upward trend in the LNG demand from reliable sources in recent years. The implementation of the corridor will meet the market’s needs for transporting these additional quantities.”
Mr Pyatt expressed wholehearted support for the implementation of the Vertical Gas Corridor, adding that the new infrastructure projects of Bulgartransgaz for capacity increase in the south-north direction need to be timely implemented and put into operation so as to ensure the transmission of the growing gas flows from Greece through Bulgaria and Romania with the possibility to reach Ukraine.
Bulgartransgaz is seeking partial grant funding for the necessary investments in order to implement the proposed projects in the shortest possible time and to keep the commercial interest in the route and increase the benefits for end users as well.
Geoffrey Pyatt also stressed the importance of the projects Bulgartransgaz is working on to ensure energy security in the region, focusing on the expansion of the underground gas storage in Chiren.