Bulgaria confirms interest in Azeri gas supplies

Bulgaria's Economy and Energy Minister Dragomir Stoynev has confirmed his country's interest in receiving gas supplies from Azerbaijan.

Stoynev met with senior executives of the state-owned oil and natural gas corporation of Azerbaijan.

During the meeting, Rovnag Abdulayev, President of State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), was positive that Azerbaijan and Bulgaria would deepen energy cooperation.

Europe is expected to receive gas supplies from Azerbaijan in 2019.

The Shah Deniz consortium selected the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) to deliver gas volumes from the Shah Deniz stage 2 project to customers in Greece, Italy and Southeast  Europe, neglecting the Nabucco gas pipeline project, planned to cross Bulgarian territory.

The decision, however, does not mean that Bulgaria will not be able to receive gas from Azerbaijan.

In the beginning of the year, TAP and the Bulgaria-Greece gas interconnector signed a memorandum of technical cooperation on the development of the strategic infrastructure in the region.

The agreement will allow Bulgaria to receive gas supplies from the Caspian Sea through the Komotini-Stara Zagora gas pipeline interconnection.

The TAP project connects to the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP) at the Turkish-Greek border.

The TAP pipeline is to carry natural gas from the Caspian Sea from Greece, via Albania and the Adriatic Sea to Italy and further to Western Europe.

ANN.Az