DEPA Commercial: Building vertical Central – SE Europe natural gas corridor

With two business moves, DEPA Commercial is starting to build the so-called vertical natural gas transmission corridor between Central and Southeastern Europe.

The first, as announced yesterday by CEO Mr. Constantinos Xifaras, is its entry into the Hungarian Energy Exchange (CEEGEX) and the second, according to OT information, is the conclusion of a final agreement with the Moldovan energy company Energocom for the supply of with quantities of natural gas.

Energy Exchange

With the operation of DEPA Commercial in CEEGEX in combination with the supply license obtained by the Greek company in this particular market, it is given the possibility of commercial transactions with quantities of natural gas in the SPOT market.

The advantages for the public company, according to sources, are:

1. Increase in DEPA’s commercial activity in foreign markets through the possibility of disposing of quantities of natural gas in a market whose liquidity exceeds 80GWh per day.

2. Strengthening the security of supply but also increasing the competition of the Greek market through its commercial interconnection with the Hungarian market.

3. Strengthening the diversification of the supply sources of the Hungarian market, with the activation of the DEPA which will make it possible to increase the flows from South to North.

Moldova

At the same time, according to OT sources, DEPA Commercial is very close to concluding a definitive agreement for the sale of gas in specific quantities in Moldova.

It is recalled that last April executives of Energocom and the ambassador of Moldova met with the then leadership of the Ministry of Environment and Energy in Athens.

The information states that DEPA Emporias and the energy company of the Eastern European country have already entered a pilot phase in commercial transactions. The Greek company sold quantities of gas to the aforementioned company.

The “Vertical Corridor”

With these moves, DEPA Commercial’s gas is normally transported through pipelines and does not concern virtual flows.

Its quantities are exported from Greece to Bulgaria through the IGB pipeline and from Bulgaria through other interconnecting pipelines to Romania and then to Moldova.

It follows a similar path to Hungary, through a pipeline that connects with Romania.

With these moves, DEPA Commercial realizes normal and not virtual natural gas flows. The company utilizes the advantage that other Greek companies have to import quantities of LNG from the terminal in Revythoussa and in addition the memorandum of cooperation signed by the Natural Gas System Operators of Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary for the creation of “Vertical Corridor” of gas transport through interconnection of their pipeline systems.

This has to do with the transfer of quantities from the Southeast to Central and Eastern Europe.