Shippers Book Turkey-Bulgaria Capacity

The second, binding phase of the open season for Bulgarian gas capacity saw three shippers submit binding bids for a "considerable part" of the total, operator Bulgartransgaz said January 28.

They accounted for all the Bulgaria-Turkey capacity and 90% of the Bulgaria-Serbia capacity, it said, without identifying the bidders.

Bulgartransgaz will publish the conditions for Phase 3 of the economic test not later than January 28, it said.

Where incremental capacity demand for a given gas year at any point is lower compared to the capacity offered within Phase 2, the capacity for the respective gas year to be offered in Phase 3 will be reduced. Reserve prices will therefore be adjusted in line with the amount of the capacity offered and the financial parameters of the procedure, approved by the regulator, it said.

The open season is due to end January 31, with the signing of binding transport contracts.

The biggest bidder is expected to be Russian pipeline monopoly Gazprom, which needs to deliver gas through the Balkans. It has said that Serbia, one of Russia's allies in the region, will play a large transit role. Gazprom is bringing gas into Turkey through the twin subsea TurkStream lines under the Black Sea, the first of which is to replace onland deliveries to Turkey through Ukraine and the second of which is to bring gas into southern and central Europe.