BULGARTRANSGAZ company organised a high-level event in Sofia on 1 February to celebrate the milestone of launching the construction works of the “Gas Interconnection Bulgaria-Serbia” (IBS). The President of Bulgaria, Rumen Radev and the President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić, together with the Ministers of Energy of both countries and the Ambassador of the European Union to Serbia, Emanuele Giaufret attended the event and participated in a walk along the route of the interconnection.

The new gas interconnector will connect the existing Serbian network in Niš with the Bulgarian network in the capital Sofia, stretching for 109 km on the Serbian side. The part of the project on Serbian territory is being financed partly through EU grants, €49.6 million, and €25 million of a favourable loan from the European Investment Bank.

The works on the Serbian territory on the interconnector started in January 2022, and works on the Bulgarian were launched on 1 February.

The Bulgarian part IBS is a Project of Common Interest (PCI) that has been co-funded by the EU under the Connecting Europe Facility Energy programme with €27.6 million. The EU support will contribute to constructing the total length of the gas interconnector on Bulgarian territory (62 km), from the town of Novi Iskar to the Bulgarian-Serbian border. Besides the gas pipeline network, other technological facilities will be built, such as pigging facilities, valve assemblies, two automated gas-regulating stations (at Slivnitsa and Dragoman), and a gas metering station at Kalotina.