Bulgaria to sign contract for design of new gas interconnector with Serbia

Bulgaria will sign a contract for the design of a new gas interconnector with Serbia - this became clear during a regional energy meeting in Sofia on May 5.

The meeting was attended by the energy ministers of Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and North Macedonia.

The key topic of the discussion was energy security and independence for the whole region.

The ministers agreed that the region urgently needs different routes for the supply of natural gas and different sources. Turkey and Greece, as expected, are among the most prepared countries in the region.

Bulgaria is among the countries with the smallest number of sources to take natural gas. Bulgaria has only one completed interconnector with Romania. There are two main challenges facing the region around which the energy ministers have agreed - getting enough gas into storage in view of the reduced supplies that are expected to be almost cut off by Russia through piped gas, as well as the limited amount of liquefied natural gas terminal capacity. These will not be sufficient to cover the countries' needs.

Bulgaria currently has minimal quantities in its only storage facility near Chiren, which if used in the summer, would be sufficient for 42 days, but would not be enough to cover the next winter season.

"We see how energy is used as a weapon, which is so obvious. We see Gazprom's unilateral breaches of contract when commitments are not met, when gas supplies are stopped. The only way we can compensate for these negative actions is to unite, as we are united today, and realise that diversification, optimisation and all other opportunities for synergy between us exist," Prime Minister Kiril Petkov said.

"I believe that there are solutions that we can all use and benefit from and we should complete the final technical aspects and of course the commercial work so that these solutions can become a reality," added Assen Vassilev, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.

He commented that Bulgaria was willing to ask for a postponement of the imposition of embargo on Russian oil if the European Commission agreed on such a decision.

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