By Trend

Following the decision of the European Commission on the Exemption of Interconnector Greece Bulgaria (IGB) from the requirements regarding third party access, tariff regulation and ownership unbundling, on August 8 the National Regulators of Greece and Bulgaria adopted an official Joint Exemption decision for IGB, said a message on the European Commission’s website.

The Exemption decision defines the framework under which the IGB pipeline will operate from Commercial operation start. The decision grants an exemption from third party access rules on the capacity booked as a result of the completed Market Test for capacity reservation for 25 years period. In addition, the EC and the National Regulatory Authorities have approved also exemptions from regulated tariff for the total capacity of the pipeline as well as exemption from ownership unbundling, both for a total period of 25 years.

The Executive Officers of ICGB - Teodora Georgieva and Konstantinos Karayannakos, welcomed the publishing of the Exemption decision and expressed gratitude to the EC and the National Regulators.

Ms. Georgieva said: ” The award of the Exemption decision is a key step to establishing the commercial status of the pipeline. We are very grateful and highly appreciate the cooperation of both the EC and NRAs during the process. ICGB will study in depth the Exemption decision and will proceed with the implementation of the necessary actions in order to fulfil the conditions set in the decision in the provided timeframe, including the preparation and the conclusion of the Gas Transportation Agreements.”

Karayannakos also commented: “We are very thankful for the constructive and efficient approach of the EC and the Regulators in handling of the Exemption decision. The issuance of the Exemption decision is the only outstanding step in the process of obtaining an Installation Permit for the Greek section of the pipeline, which is an equivalent to the Construction Permit obtained for the Bulgarian section on4 th of October 2017. After the finalization of the process the Project Company will have all the necessary permissions to start construction.”

IGB is a gas pipeline, which will allow Bulgaria to receive Azerbaijani gas, in particular, the gas produced from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz 2 gas and condensate field. IGB is expected to be connected to TAP via which gas from the Shah Deniz field will be delivered to the European markets.

The initial capacity of IGB will be 3 billion cubic meters of gas.

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