Romania, Bulgaria to Import LPG through Greece Interconnection

The President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, held joint press statements with the President of the Republic of Bulgaria, Rumen Radev, on Tuesday, March 15, 2022, at the Cotroceni Palace.

The main topic of discussion was the severe security situation generated by the Russian military aggression against Ukraine and the fight against its multiple effects. The political figures discussed the importance of putting a Bulgaria-Greece gas interconnection into operation to reduce their dependence on Russian gas supplies.

In the context of excluding Russia from the EU commerce and the increasing need of Romania to reduce the energy reliance on the Russian Federation, the Romanian President and Bulgarian President highlighted in a press conference the importance of energy diversification and transport routes.

Also, the Romanian President mentioned the critical need for the Bulgaria-Greece interconnector operationalization that, once completed, will be able to connect the BRUA gas pipeline to make the Vertical Gas Corridor operational. BRUA is a project for a pipeline linking the gas transmission systems of Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria.

Klaus Johannis added he also talked about the need to have the interconnector functioning as soon as possible with Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis during his visit to Romania. There are promises that by the end of this year, the interconnector will be functional.

On the other hand, we are working on other alternative gas supply routes and we are in advanced negotiations with several sources. It is clear that by the beginning of the winter of 2022 and 2023 we must have viable alternatives that provide us with gas for the coming winter.

Klaus Johannes, Romanian President

Last week, Bulgarian media quoted a senior official at ICGB (Gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria), the company developing the gas connection, saying that the start of the interconnection between Greece and Bulgaria could start to be delayed until autumn. ICGB still aims to have the interconnector operational by July 1, 2022. Still, that deadline is a huge challenge, the official said, adding that there is also a lot of market pressure to get the gas connection operational.

A new Greek gas trading platform will operate on March 21, improving connectivity and security of supply in the region amid turbulent global markets. The new Greek trading platform will join Bulgaria’s Balkan Gas Hub and Bulgarian Energy Trading Platform, and Romania’s three energy trading platforms, namely BRM, OPCOM and Tradex.