LNG

Azerbaijan, the Central Asian nation and former Soviet republic, has issued its quarterly natural gas pipeline export data that affects LNG requirements in Southern Europe.

Enagás, the Spanish gas grid and LNG terminals operator as well as a shareholder in the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), said the US was its main liquefied natural gas supplier in the first quarter followed by Algeria and Nigeria as LNG deliveries increased substantially and European Union gas supplies became tight.

Bulgaria said that work had begun on the construction of a new Bulgaria-Serbia Balkan natural gas interconnector with plans for the pipeline to become operational in October 2023 and to enable supplies to come from two Greek LNG import terminals.

These links to the expanding Balkan natural gas market will come from the existing Greek LNG import terminal at Revithoussa operated by the Hellenic Gas Transmission System Operator (DESFA) near Athens, and the proposed new floating LNG project at Alexandroupolis in eastern Greece.

The 170 kilometres (105.6 miles) Bulgaria-Serbia interconnector is separate from the TurkStream link of Russian natural gas supplier Gazprom and will run from the Bulgarian capital Sofia via Dimitrovgrad in Serbia to the city of Nis in southern Serbia, giving the Serbs a non-Russian supply option for the first time.

It will enable Serbia to import natural gas via Greece and Bulgaria from the Southern Gas Corridor bringing gas from Azerbaijan on the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) to southern Europe and as regasified LNG from the two Greek LNG terminals.

The Bulgaria-Serbia interconnector is supported by the European Union as a Project of Common Interest and has secured a €49.5 million ($56.5M) grant from the EU.

The EU grant comes from the EU Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance as Serbia is not an EU member is simply in the “waiting room”.

The Bulgaria-Serbia pipeline has also secured €25M from the European Investment Bank loan of €25M.

Regasfied LNG

The pipeline will have a capacity of 1.8 billion cubic metres per annum in the direction Bulgaria-Serbia with the possibility also of reverse flow.

There are additional plans for a new interconnector to link the gas grids of Greece and the former Yugoslav nation of North Macedonia.

The gas grid operators of the two countries in September 2021 signed a new gas cooperation agreement, a key step ahead of construction of the new link.

The 123 km pipeline will have an initial capacity of 1.5 Bcm per annum with possible doubling of capacity. A final investment decision is expected before the end of the second quarter of 2022.

The Balkans have been historically dependent on Russian gas imports, though can also receive gas from Azerbaijan on the TAP pipeline and regasified LNG from the Revithoussa terminal.

Greece's Gastrade at the end of January 2022 took the final investment decision for the planned 5.5 Bcm per annum floating LNG import terminal at Alexandroupolis in northern Greece, paving the way for the project to begin operations by the end of 2023.

Gastrade SA, the Greek company developing an FLNG facility, took the FID with joint venture partners, including Bulgaria’s transmission company Bulgartransgaz.

GasLog FSRU

The FSRU will be provided by Greek shipping company GasLog and be connected to the DEFSA system by a 28km pipeline.

Regasified LNG entering the terminal will be able to flow onward to other markets in the region.

Bulgaria is also building a new interconnector with Greece called the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) allowing Azerbaijan's gas on the TAP pipeline to flow northward to Bulgaria and for the regasified Greek LNG to reach Bulgaria and then Serbia.

The IGB pipeline is scheduled to come on stream in July 2022.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov has just completed a visit to Serbia to discuss energy issues and the pipelines and LNG supplies with his Serbian counterpart, Ana Brnabić.

“There is great potential to create a single gas trade market involving Bulgaria, Serbia, North Macedonia and Greece,” stated Petkov during his visit to the Serbian capiatl Belgrade.

“We need to bring together the volumes of gas consumption in the whole region so that we can negotiate together for lower prices,” Petkov told a joint news conference with Serbian PM Brnabić.

“Our gas connectivity will be a huge priority. The Greek connection is very important for Bulgaria, and through the connection with Serbia you will have the opportunity to receive LNG and Azerbaijani gas,” added Petkov.

Brnabić, who attended the ceremony to mark the start of the pipeline construction, said that the gas pipeline would be ready for operation by October 2023, coinciding with the start-up of the Alexandroupolis FLNG facility.

Petkov told the news conference that Serbia’s future membership of the EU was a huge priority for Bulgaria.

Brnabić thanked Petkov for making the visit, saying that he was the first Bulgarian head of government to come to next-door neighbour Serbia since 2013.

Jan 1 (LNGJ) - Azerbaijan, the former republic of the Soviet Union, has started commercial natural gas supplies to southern Europe via the Trans- Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) in competition to LNG and Russian pipeline gas from Gazprom. The TAP pipeline is 3,500 kilometres in length and is part of the $40-billion Southern Gas Corridor bringing natural gas to Europe from the Shah Deniz II field in the Caspian Sea, operated by UK oil and gas major BP.

   Azerbaijan plans to supply the markets of the European Union with 10 billion cubic metres per annum of pipeline gas, including 8 Bcm to Italy and a combined 2 Bcm to Greece and Bulgaria. It has already supplied gas to Turkey. The TAP stakeholders include BP and the Azeri energy company Socar, as well as the gas grid operators of Italy, Spain and Belgium.

France’s natural gas pipeline operator GRTgaz, whose subsidiary is French LNG import terminal company Elengy, has agreed to proceed with the first major physical entry point of natural gas in France through Switzerland.