BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 17. The commissioning of the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) on October 1, 2022 was a major contribution to the energy diversification of Bulgaria and the entire region, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev told Kathimerini, TurkicWorld reports.

"We continue to build upon this momentum and enhance the development of cross-border energy infrastructure and common large-scale investment projects," he said.

Radev pointed out that the liquified natural gas (LNG) terminal near Alexandroupoli is expected to the launched by late 2023 providing an access to the world LNG markets, in full synergy with the IGB.

Since the beginning of the current heating season, the IGB provides nearly 1/3 of the winter consumption of natural gas in Bulgaria. IGB is the first route for diversified supplies of natural gas to Bulgaria, guaranteeing increased security of supply and diversity of sources, contributing significantly to the competition in the natural gas market, which is a prerequisite for optimized prices for businesses and domestic consumers in the country.

Radev said the current challenges clearly showed the importance of developing energy connectivity and securing access to alternative sources.

"Only together we can unlock the potential of our economies and further deepen our integration. A good example of this regional approach to address the common challenges is the project "Solidarity ring" – an agreement between Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Austria to interconnect their gas networks in order to secure the transmission of extra quantities of natural gas from Azerbaijan to the EU," noted Bulgaria’s president.

Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria have asked the European Commission to allocate funds for developing infrastructure to get additional natural gas from Azerbaijan.

It is about developing the existing infrastructure, construction of new interconnectors and expanding the capacity of the existing ones. It is important to increase the number of interconnectors in Europe in order to boost gas imports from Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan’s gas exports to Europe began on December 31, 2020 with the commissioning of the Southern Gas Corridor comprising of the South Caucasus Pipeline Expansion, the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).

Azerbaijan's export of natural gas to European Union market will stand at 11.6 billion cubic meters as of 2023.