Bulgaria Pushes for Gas Hub, EU Funding
The Bulgarian government is working harder to establish a national gas hub. It is trying to amalgamate the various competing projects and also to secure the financial and political support of the European Union.
Bulgarian premier Boyko Borisov told German media that his country had begun work on a Balkan gas hub as it wanted to become a significant player not only in the Balkans but in central Europe. Varna would be one potential site, as Russian pipeline gas already passes through it, and coming later on is gas from Azerbaijan following the start-up of the second phase of the Shakh Deniz gas field in 2019 and the Bulgaria-Greece interconnector. Greek wholesale gas supplier Depa is already an importer of LNG.
The EU and Bulgaria have formed a joint working group to review the feasibility of this endeavour.
Work has also begun on the Serbia-Bulgaria interconnector and when it is complete by the end of 2018 it will be able to support the flow of 1.8bn m³/yr, most of which will be directed to central European markets.
The Bulgarian government has also stressed the importance of developing indigenous resources of gas and the energy minister, Temenuzhka Petkova, relayed to the local press that exploration work will start this year in the Kitka and Vratsa regions. Also by early 2017 production drilling should start in the Black Sea field Khan Asparuh, Anglo-Dutch major Shell won the Silistar block last September and exploration work is expected to start there in the next 18 months. These projects though face the challenge of low oil prices.
Moreover, the Bulgarian foreign ministry is putting more diplomatic efforts abroad into building gas security. Lacking the necessary funds for investment, it also needs support of stronger EU states, such as Germany.
Perhaps to counter these EU-leaning efforts, a Russian member of parliament Pavel Zavalny, talking recently to Bulgarian national radio, caused controversy by stating that Gazprom’s South Stream pipeline project has not officially been wound up, nor is there any official termination of the relevant intergovernmental agreement which was signed between Sofia and Moscow.
The European Commission has done what it can to stop the project from proceeding on EU territory, leading Gazprom instead to plan Turk Stream, a much smaller pipeline to deliver gas from Russia’s Black Sea coast to Turkey.
Ioannis Michaletos