OREANDA-NEWS. October 15, 2010. The Gazprom delegation led by Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee paid a working visit to the Republic of Bulgaria.

Alexey Miller met with Boyko Borissov, Bulgarian Prime Minister and Traycho Traykov, Bulgarian Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism.

The meeting participants looked at the current issues of the Russian-Bulgarian cooperation in the gas sector. Special attention was paid to the interaction within the South Stream project and, in particular, to the progress in implementing the Roadmap’s provisions on elaborating the feasibility study (FS) for South Stream in Bulgaria.

Alexey Miller underlined: “Today we have achieved significant progress in discussing all the South Stream-related issues. The agreements have been reached on stepping up the activities, elaborating the FS for the Bulgarian section of the gas pipeline and setting up a joint venture. We are going to establish the JV in November 2010, much earlier than it was planned.”
Background

Russian natural gas has been exported to Bulgaria since 1974. In 2009 Gazprom supplied Bulgaria with 2.2 billion cubic meters. At present, Gazprom is the only gas exporter to Bulgaria.

Gazprom transits natural gas to Turkey, Greece and Macedonia via Bulgaria. In December 2006 the existing Transit Contract between Gazprom export and Bulgargaz was extended from 2010 to 2030.

In January 2008 Russia and Bulgaria signed the Intergovernmental Agreement stipulating Bulgaria’s involvement in the South Stream project.

On May 15, 2009 Gazprom and Bulgarian Energy Holding EAD signed the Agreement of Cooperation during the gas pipeline construction to transit natural gas via the Republic of Bulgaria as part of the South Stream project. The document sets forth the cooperation principles during the FS preparation for the Bulgarian section of the gas pipeline and the joint project company establishment.

In July 2010 Russia and Bulgaria signed the Roadmap to perform the FS for the Bulgarian section of the South Stream project. The Roadmap represents a plan of prioritized actions for the project implementation in Bulgaria.