Bulgarian Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova said on Thursday that the planned gas interconnection grid with Greece is expected to become fully operational by 2018.

Petkova announced this following a bilateral meeting with her Greek counterpart Panagiotis Lafazanis, daily Dnevnik reports.

Both of them are participating in the first meeting of the advisory council on the construction of the Southern Gas Corridor, which is being held in Baku.

It became clear that the final investment decision on the construction of the Bulgaria-Greece interconnector is expected to be taken until the end of May.

Lafazanis assured that the Greek government will work actively for the development of energy projects, which are of mutual interest to both countries, as was the case with the interconnector.

Petkova informed him that Bulgaria had produced a roadmap with concrete activities and deadlines for the implementation of the project.

The state budget for 2015 allocates EUR 80 M as a government guarantee aimed at accelerating the construction of the pipe.

The environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the project had already been conducted, while the adoption of detailed construction plan was at its final stage.

The two ministers announced that their common goal is ensuring the security of supplies within the framework of the European Union (EU).

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