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By Trend

A total of EUR 183 million have been spent on the project for construction of the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) by the end of 2021, ICGB’s Executive Officer on the Bulgarian side Teodora Georgieva said in an exclusive interview with Trend.

"As you know, the total approved budget for the IGB pipeline is EUR 240 million and it is secured through a long-term loan from the European Investment Bank (EUR 110 m), the European energy programme for recovery (EUR 45 m), the Operational Programme Innovation and Competitiveness (EUR 39 m) and capital participation of the shareholders – in this case the Bulgarian Energy Holding and IGI Poseidon. We have utilized EUR 90 million from the EIB finding, about EUR 23 million from the EEPR grant financing and EUR 28,5 under the OPIC grant financing. For Q1 2022 we’re expecting another EUR 8 million to be utilized under OPIC," she said.

Georgieva noted that the way IGB’s funding is organized – especially due to the strict control procedures of the EIB – the project company does not receive the total budget in advance and allocate it to contractors immediately after.

"For each financial tranche to be approved and utilized we undergo audit procedures both on site of the pipeline and in terms of document review. Upon successfully completing each audit, ICGB receives the relevant funds and follows up with due payments to its contractors for the IGB project. This process helps us ensure that there are several levels of control over the project, including from independent international institutions," she explained.

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