ATHENS: Greece and Bulgaria will seal a deal in the coming weeks to build a gas pipeline connecting the two countries, part of the Southern Corridor infrastructure scheme to bring Caspian gas to Europe, two Greek energy ministry officials.
The Interconnector Greece Bulgaria (IGB) project is estimated to cost about $112 million and the European Union has approved about 45 million euros in funding to build the pipeline. The 180 km pipeline will have a capacity of 3 billion cubic metres (bcm). It will be built by a Greek-Bulgarian joint venture set up in 2011 which includes Italian energy group Edison SpA.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s leftist-led government has been pursuing a diversified energy policy and has made an overture to Moscow by supporting the planned extension of a gas pipeline that will transport Russian gas to Europe via Turkey and Greece. Tsipras is due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin at an annual business conference in St Petersburg and the two leaders are expected to discuss the so-called Turkish Stream.
