A new meeting of the CEOs of the gas transmission and system operators involved in the Vertical Gas Corridor project took place in Athens on July 10. Discussions focused on the roadmap for expanding the initiative, with Romania playing a central role along the route that carries gas from southern to central and eastern Europe.<\/p>\n
The meeting in Athens marks a new stage in the project\u2019s development, moving from the consolidation of the Greece\u2013Bulgaria\u2013Romania\u2013Republic of Moldova\u2013Ukraine route to the expansion of the infrastructure toward Serbia and North Macedonia.<\/p>\n
Romania was represented by Ion Sterian, CEO of Transgaz and the initiator of this European project aimed at improving gas supply and helping to reduce dependence on Russia.<\/p>\n
The meeting\u2019s agenda focused on the latest developments regarding this strategic energy infrastructure project and an analysis of the roadmap for expanding the initiative by including transmission and system operators from Serbia and North Macedonia.<\/p>\n
The discussions in Athens follow Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, and North Macedonia\u2019s acceleration in recent months of negotiations regarding the expansion of energy infrastructure toward the Western Balkans. In May, Greek Energy Minister Stavros Papastavrou announced that Serbia and North Macedonia were set to be integrated into the Vertical Corridor framework through the development of gas interconnections.<\/p>\n
Authorities in the region have also agreed to institutionalize cooperation for the project\u2019s expansion. However, the necessary infrastructure has not yet been fully completed. The interconnector between Greece and North Macedonia is under construction and is expected to become operational in 2027. At the same time, the projects needed to connect North Macedonia with Serbia are being analysed.<\/p>\n
The goal is to complete both the planning process and the necessary infrastructure as quickly as possible, ahead of the European Union\u2019s planned total ban on natural gas imports from Russia, which, under current EU legislation, is set to take effect in October of next year.<\/p>\n
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What does the expansion toward the Western Balkans change<\/p>\n
The inclusion of Serbia and North Macedonia would open a new branch of the Vertical Corridor toward the Western Balkans. The two states could gain access to gas flows entering the region via Greece\u2019s LNG infrastructure, while the regional network would become more interconnected.<\/p>\n
For Romania, the expansion strengthens the position of the network managed by Transgaz within an energy system that connects southern Europe to markets in central and eastern Europe.<\/p>\n
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What do the latest evaluations show<\/p>\n
The investment required to implement the gas projects along the Vertical Corridor amounts to nearly \u20ac1.65 billion to ensure a capacity of approximately 9.41 billion cubic meters per year. However, the latest update on the Vertical Corridor project indicates that American funding and non-repayable European funds are needed to carry out this plan.<\/p>\n
Through the implementation of this gas transmission corridor\u2014a European project launched at the initiative of Transgaz CEO Ion Sterian\u2014the transmission capacity of 9.41 bcm per year is expected to increase to 27 bcm per year in the second phase.<\/p>\n
Currently, the Vertical Corridor\u2019s capacity is 5.03 bcm per year. Greece, Bulgaria, and Romania have already completed key phases of the Vertical Corridor, which is designed to supply gas from southern Europe to Ukraine and Moldova. These include infrastructure upgrades, new pipelines such as the Greece-Bulgaria Interconnector (IGB), as well as commercial agreements and special auctions.<\/p>\n
Romania has been promoting the Vertical Corridor concept since 2016 as a strategic initiative aimed at reducing dependence on Russian gas and facilitating the supply of American LNG produced by U.S. companies both in the United States and by American companies in other parts of the world: North Africa, offshore Cyprus, the Leviathan and Tamar fields in the Mediterranean Sea etc.<\/p>\n
The members of the Vertical Corridor Initiative, recognizing the need to ensure an uninterrupted supply of natural gas to their markets, as well as the importance of increasing market liquidity by facilitating alternative supply routes, have joined forces to carry out certain investments necessary to eliminate existing physical constraints along the Vertical Corridor route, thereby increasing the capacity of their systems, particularly in the south-north direction.<\/p>\n
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What gas will be used to supply the Corridor<\/p>\n
The implementation of the Vertical Corridor will make it possible to import U.S. LNG produced by American companies (Exxon, Chevron, etc.), including from existing LNG terminals in Greece (Revithoussa, Alexandroupolis) as well as from other terminals currently in the planning stage (e.g., Dioriga in Greece).<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the Bulgarian side fulfils its commitments and carries out the planned investments, the capacity of the Vertical Corridor will double, from 5 bcm to approximately 9.4 bcm annually, equivalent to approximately 27 mcm per day,\u201d Ion Sterian says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Vertical Corridor is my initiative for natural gas transmission from south to north, bringing gas from the Caspian Sea region and Azerbaijan, as well as liquefied natural gas (LNG) from terminals in Greece and Turkey, including U.S. LNG. This will contribute to the diversification of natural gas sources and increase the security of gas supplies to countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans. The integration of the BRUA pipeline into the Vertical Corridor transforms Romania into a major player in the region\u2019s gas market,\u201d Transgaz CEO also mentioned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new meeting of the CEOs of the gas transmission and system operators involved in the Vertical Gas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6364,9944,88,4,744,1416,98,368,4087,3790,1499,8432,510,828,3482,10066,548,1555,7509],"class_list":["post-92890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-europe","tag-analysis","tag-electric","tag-energy","tag-europe","tag-event","tag-gas","tag-industry","tag-interview","tag-magazine","tag-media","tag-metals","tag-mining","tag-oil","tag-opinion","tag-power","tag-print","tag-renewables","tag-review","tag-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}