EU Clears State Aid Greece and Bulgaria Natural Gas Interconnector

The EU's competition regulators have approved a plan by Greece and Bulgaria to build and operate a natural gas interconnector with public funds, reports Energy Live News. 

They said the €240 million (£209m) project will boost the region's goal of diversifying its energy supplies by carrying three billion cubic meters of natural gas from Greece to Bulgaria each year by 2021.

The support would include a €111 million (£96.7m) loan from the European Investment Bank, €39 million (£34m) from Bulgaria and a 25-year fixed corporate tax regime.

The interconnector will be owned by ICGB AD, a joint venture between the IGI Poseidon consortium and BEH.

A new power interconnector between Germany and the Netherlands has recently gone live, boosting transmission capacity between the countries by up to 750MW.