BAKU – The pipeline project Interconnector Greece and Bulgaria (IGB) was an important milestone, Bulgarian President Ilham Aliyev told the 9th Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting and 1st Green Energy Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku.

“The inauguration of the interconnector between Greece and Bulgaria, which of course was generated by the Southern Gas Corridor project and is to a certain degree its extension which allowed us to start supplying natural gas to Bulgaria and also consider expansion through that extension through that interconnector to the neighboring countries,” he said, reported Azer News.

The pipeline went into operation on Oct. 1, 2022 as Greece and Bulgarian were trying to lessen reliance on Russian energy supplies exempted from sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine, but with worries in the European Union about disruptions.
It is designed to connect the Greek national gas transmission system and the Trans-Adriatic gas pipeline (TAP in the area of Komotini, Greece with the Bulgarian gas transmission system in the area of Stara Zagora.

The total length of the gas pipeline is 182 kilometers (113 miles) and it has a diameter of 32 inches, with a design capacity of up to 3 billion cubic meters annually, but could reach 5 billion cubic meters if there is market interest.