One or more Greek suppliers of the Greek national natural gas transmission system to register as users of the Bulgarian transmission system, and one or more Bulgarian suppliers to reserve slots and storage capacity, as well as regasification capacity in Greece – this is provided by a memorandum of understanding between the energy ministries of the two countries, approved by the caretaker government.

The measures are in compliance with a European regulation to guarantee the security of natural gas supplies.

According to the regulation, any country that does not have underground gas storage facilities on its territory must maintain strategic reserves equal to 15% of its annual consumption in another EU country.

With the memorandum, Greek operators will be able to reserve injection and extraction capacities in Bulgaria’s gas storage facility in Chiren, and Bulgarian operators – will be able to use liquefied natural gas for direct supply to end users on the territory of Bulgaria.

The memorandum will be concluded for 12 months.

Bulgaria and Greece to cooperate in the study of the possibilities for the implementation of a project for the construction of an oil pipeline “Alexandroupolis-Burgas”. This foresees a second memorandum of understanding between the two parties, voted today by the caretaker cabinet.

The two countries will explore the possibilities of implementing the infrastructure project for the transfer of crude oil from non-Russian sources from the port of Alexandroupolis in Greece to the Burgas region in Bulgaria. It is planned to create a special working group that will carry out the necessary additional studies, explore the possibilities of structuring a project for the construction of the oil pipeline and analyze the options for its financing. The capacity of the proposed pipeline is expected to provide at least a complete replacement of Russian crude oil in Bulgaria by sea from alternative sources.