Natural Gas: The IGB pipeline is developing Greece aggressively and geopolitically – what does the country gain – Newsbomb – News

Next Saturday, the first of October, the dawning of a new era of the energy map in Southeast Europe, with the beginning of the flow Natural gas from Greece to Bulgaria and from there (later) to the rest of the Balkans as far as Ukraine, via the Greek-Bulgarian IGB interconnection pipeline.

At a festive ceremony in Sofia, the first quantities of gas coming from the south will be “welcomed” by the leaders of the Balkans and the head of the commission. Ursula von der Leyen.

Bulgarian President Romain Radev The Prime Minister of Greece called Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Who will go with the Minister of Energy Costas Screkas, Presidents of Serbia and Skopje Aleksander Vucic And the Stevo Bandarovsky, Prime Minister of Romania Nikolai Tsiuka President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.

With a difficult energy winter approaching, Bulgaria is strengthening its “reservoirs” with Azerbaijani natural gas from Greece. The IGB . connectorWith a length of 182 kilometers, it starts from Komotini and enters the Bulgarian network in the city of Stara Zagora. In the first phase, it will move 3 billion square meters annually. of natural gas, but the total transport capacity will be 5 billion cubic meters.

Its business operations were launched with Gas flow from Azerbaijanwhich will “fall” to the IGB, at its intersection with TAP passes in Komotinito continue the “journey” to Bulgaria and from there, via other connected pipelines, to Serbia, Skopje, Romania, Moldova and Ukraine – later, and possibly further.

However, from the end of 2023, in Bulgarian Greek “pipe” Large quantities of liquid will also be reduced LNG from Alexandroupoliwhere it will reach the floating ice by tankers and regasify at the FSRU’s floating facilities under construction.

From the offshore platform, it will be directed to tar On the ground and a little below, at the height of Komotini, through it IGB She’s leaving to shop for her Southeast Europe.

Last May, they met in Alexandroupoli at the opening of the beginning of its construction FSRU Directly interested leaders of Balkan countries have been announced and there is a commitment from the construction group that the project will be completed by the end of next year, and a construction plan for a second platform has also been announced. Regasification of LNG West Alexandroupolis.

It turns out, after all this, that Hellas become a gateway to energy southeast europe, Which at the same time helps in the work of its independence from Russian energy sources.

The Balkan countries have, until now, been more dependent on Russian gas and oil, with Bulgaria covering 90% of its needs from Russia. yes Moscow, Because of Sofia’s position on Ukraine, she has already cut off gas supplies. With the start of the IGB, the energy landscape is also changing Russian monopoly “breaking”The first step is to operate the Greco-Bulgarian axis. Another pipeline that would more firmly “connect” Greece with European energy networks, it was agreed to build on the Thessaloniki-Skopje axis, to transport gas to Skopje and from there north to Serbia, Kosovo, etc.

According to analysts, with power pipelines as well as road and sea hubs (ports), The geopolitical position of Greece is generally updated in the Southeast European region.

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