Azerbaijan could triple gas deliveries to Bulgaria

The gas deliveries from the Azerbaijani gas condensate field Shah-Deniz to Bulgaria could be tripled up to 3 billion cub.m. a year in the future, Bulgarian Energy Minister Dragomir Stoynev told journalists after the meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on February 20, 2014.

Bulgaria has earlier agreed to receive 1 billion cub.m. of gas a year from Shah-Deniz from 2019. The gas deliveries increase will become possible after construction of the trans-Adriatic gas pipeline (TAP), which will go through Greece and Albania to Italy (Bulgarian Minister most likely meant expansion of TAP – Turan). “We, certainly, need to build TAP,” Stoynev quoted in the statement of the Bulgarian Council of Ministers.

In November 2012 Gasprom Export and Bulgargas companies signed the agreement envisaging delivery up to 2.9 billion cub.m. of Russian gas a year till 2022. Therefore, additional gas from Azerbaijan could force out Russian fuel from the Bulgarian market. 

During the meeting between the two countries’ delegations Azerbaijan expressed its interest in investing into Bulgaria. “If we previously spoke only about intentions, now President Aliyev already mentioned concrete projects and investments, first of all in the energy sector,” said Bulgarian Minister.

In particular, Azerbaijan considers possibility of investing into gas storage and gas distribution network of Bulgaria.—0—