Brussels, 28/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - Bulgarian gas network operator Bulgartransgaz and Greek counterpart DESFA signed an interconnection agreement on Monday 27 June allowing market players to transport gas - including from liquefied natural gas (LNG) sources - between the two countries for the first time, beginning 1 July 2016.
The Commission has welcomed the agreement as a crucial step towards implementing EU rules on one of the last cross-border points in Europe where historic transit arrangements, tailored to a single company, have hitherto prevailed.
The agreement is also the first step in giving access to other market players - for north- or south-bound deliveries - along and beyond the important Trans-Balkan gas corridor between Greece, Turkey, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Ukraine, the Commission says.
It forms part of the broader Central and South Eastern Europe Gas Connectivity (CESEC) initiative launched in 2015 by 15 countries from the EU and the Energy Community (Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia from the EU and Albania, FYROM, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine from the Energy Community) and the European Commission with the objective of diversifying gas supplies and increasing security of supply in the region.
This interconnection agreement between Greece and Bulgaria will soon be followed by similar agreements between the Bulgarian and Romanian and the Romanian and Ukrainian network operators respectively and a follow-up on an agreement signed in 2015 between the Hungarian and Ukrainian network operators. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)