IGI Poseidon, a 50/50 partnership between DEPA, the Public Gas Corporation of Greece, and Italy's Edison, is ready to sign a final investment decision (FID) on the Gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria by the end of November, a senior DEPA official said on Thursday.

The construction of the IGB Pipeline will start in the beginning of 2016, and is supposed to be completed by 2018, Kostas Karayannakos, DEPA division head international projects and gas supply, said during an economic conference in Sofia.

The IGB Pipeline, which will be 182 km long, will link the northeastern Greek city of Komotini with Stara Zagora in Bulgaria. It is estimated to cost 220 million euro ($239 million). It will carry 3 billion cu m of natural gas annually in its initial stage and will have a maximum capacity of 5 billion cu m per year. It will eventually be connected to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), carrying natural gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe through Greece.

The pipeline is an essential part of a vertical gas corridor connecting Bulgaria, Greece and Romania, which the three countries have committed to develop.

In March, Bulgaria's energy ministry said a FID on IGB Pipeline would be signed by  the end of May.

"The process was slowed down due to negotiation of some contractual documents, long negotiations took place, but now this is almost finalised," Karayannakos told a SeeNews reporter on the sidelines of the conference.

Part of the funding - 45 million euro ($51.3 million) was contributed by the European Union (EU) in the form of a grant, Karayannakos added.

"We are also exploring several options for co-financing with banks and institutions such as the EBRD [the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development] and EIB [the European Investment Bank]. Along with EBRD we have a cooperation on the process and we are in talks," Karayannakos also said.

Bulgaria imports about 90% of the natural gas it needs from Russia through a pipeline crossing the territories of Ukraine, Moldova and Romania.

Source: SeeNews