The EU Energy Council has agreed that gas storage sites in the Community must be filled to at least 80% of their capacity by Nov. 1, 2022, and to 90% by Nov. 1 in subsequent years.

In the case of Bulgaria, which only has the Chiren gas storage facility, this means that it must be filled to 4.64 terawatt hours (TWh) for the coming winter and to 5.22 TWh for the winter of 2023.

During the meeting of the Council in Luxembourg, an agreement was signed between Bulgartransgaz EAD and the EU, under which the European Commission finances the expansion of the Chiren depot within the framework of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) with EUR 78 million, i.e. 80% of the price. The expansion will increase the storage volume at Chiren to one billion cubic metersand the daily production and injection capacities to 8-10 mcm.