American financing institutions interested in the Chiren gas storage expansion project

As part of his visit to Washington, Bulgartransgaz EAD Executive Director Vladimir Malinov met with Jeffrey Payat, Assistant Secretary at the US State Department's Bureau of Energy Resources. The two discussed the successful cooperation between the Bulgarian gas transmission operator and American companies to improve the energy infrastructure in the region. The key importance of liquefied natural gas, including from American suppliers, in ensuring the security of gas supplies for South-Eastern Europe was underlined.

Vladimir Malinov also held meetings with representatives of the state American Corporation for International Development U.S. DFC, as well as with EXIM Bank – the US Federal Export Credit Agency. He also spoke with representatives of MIGA - the World Bank's Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency.

Among the issues discussed was the interest of the organizations in participating in the financing of the expansion of the underground gas storage in Chiren. The project is co-financed by the Connecting Europe Facility and envisages doubling the capacity of the only gas storage facility in Bulgaria. The volume of active gas will increase to 1 billion m3, and the daily extraction and injection capacities will reach 8-10 million m3/day.

Before the American partners, Malinov emphasized that the project is a priority for the European Union, as it is of key importance for increasing the diversification and security of gas supplies by increasing the share of liquefied natural gas in the energy mix in accordance with the RePowerEU plan. "The expansion of the gas storage is in full synergy with the project to build a LNG terminal in Alexandroupolis, Greece," he added.

In front of the companies from the USA, Vladimir Malinov also presented the projects of the Bulgarian gas transmission operator "Bulgartransgaz", which will support the achievement of the Green transition.