Expansion of Chiren Gas Storage Facility to Be Finished in 2024

The expansion of the Chiren underground gas storage facility will be concluded in 2024; that is when the construction of the facility's underground and ground installations should be finished, Energy Minister Temenouzka Petkova said during Friday's Question Time in Parliament. She explained that three-dimensional field seismic studies are now being conducted at Chiren to determine the final version of the expansion.

The expansion was delayed due to an appeal lodged by one of the participants in the public procurement procedure, Petkova added. Bulgartransgaz EAD signed a contract for the project on May 25, 2018 and is currently implementing it.

Petkova also said that once the Southern Gas Corridor and the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) are finished, Bulgaria will be able to receive 1 billion m3 of Azeri gas, as envisaged in the 2013 agreement between Bulgargransgaz and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR). In her words, this is one-third of Bulgaria's natural gas consumption.

The construction of the IGB should begin in two to three months, and it should be finished and put into operation by the second half of 2020, the Energy Minister specified.

Source: BTA