A project to expand the underground gas storage facility in Chiren, northwestern Bulgaria, will be funded with a 78 million euro grant from the European Union, BTA reports.

It is one of five approved energy projects and the only one related to natural gas, with the European Commission announcing that EU member states have agreed to finance projects through the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), said Bulgartransgaz, the national gas transmission network operator, according to Agerpres.

The other four projects are the EuroAsia interconnector (657 million euro) to support the first electricity interconnection between Cyprus and the European network; Phase II of the Baltic Synchronization Project (170 million euro); Aurora line (127 million euro) and Aurora borealis, phase II (four million euros).

The European Commission has said that the planned increase in the capacity of the underground natural gas storage facility in Chiren, Bulgaria, is necessary for regional security of supply in south-eastern Europe and to reduce gas supply costs. The project also supports the phasing out of coal use in the region, facilitating the transition to clean energy.

Funding through the Connecting Europe Facility is only available for projects designated by the European Commission as of Common Interest (CIP). The Chiren project expansion has been invariably included on all PCI lists since 2017.

The Chiren project envisages increasing the amount of active gas in the warehouse to one billion cubic meters, and the daily injection and extraction capacity will be increased to 8-10 million cubic meters, Bulgartransgaz reported.