Baku, Azerbaijan, January 5
By Aygun Badalova - Trend:
Bulgaria is keen to become main gas transit country for South Eastern and Central Europe, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said in an interview to Deutsche Welle.
He said that this could be possible by construction of Balkan gas hub near the Varna coastal (Bulgarian Black Sea Coast).
It is expected that the gas for this project will be supplied from Russia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, as well as from Romanian and Bulgarian fields.
Borisov noted that the project and its financial plan is being developed by Bulgarian government jointly with the European Commission.
In December, 2015, Bulgaria and the European Commission agreed to establish a joint working group to support the development of a gas hub in Bulgaria designed to serve the whole Balkan region.
It will focus on creating a "stable regulatory framework and business environment to facilitate the connection between Bulgaria and the rest of southeast Europe," the Bulgarian cabinet said in a statement.
Currently Turkey and Bulgaria plan to construct a connecting pipeline for importing Azerbaijani gas to Bulgaria.
Earlier Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece have decided to construct an interconnector that alongside with the 'Balkan' gas hub will facilitate diversification and transportation of natural gas in any direction.
Earlier, it was planned to supply Azerbaijani gas from the Stage 2 of development of Shah Deniz field to Bulgaria via the IGB gas pipeline that will be connected to the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) meant to supply annually 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from Shah Deniz to European markets. The initial capacity of IGB will be three billion cubic meters of gas.