Supply of agreed quantities of Azerbaijani gas to Bulgaria to start on July 1

Bulgaria will be able to receive Azerbaijani gas in full from July 1 after the completion of the test gas flow via Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) in June, Azerbaijani Ambassador in Sofia Huseyn Huseynov said.

"Deliveries of agreed volumes of gas will start on July 1," he said on social media on Sunday.

The diplomat noted that test transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Bulgaria has already started via IGB. Test supplies are expected to be performed until late June, he said.

Deliveries of Azerbaijani gas to Europe, namely, to Italy, Greece and Bulgaria, started on December 31, 2020 via the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP). However, due to the absence of the interconnector the volume of Azerbaijani gas supplies to Bulgaria was several times less than planned, that is, 250-300 million cubic meters per year instead of one billion cubic meters per year.

The IGB operator said at the end of March 2022 that IGB has already been connected to TAP, which will make it possible to start deliveries of Azerbaijani gas to Bulgaria via the interconnector.

As soon as IGB is put into operation, the interconnector will first guarantee Bulgaria 1 bcm of gas per year with a later increase to the design capacity of 3 bcm per year.