Bulgaria’s gas monopoly Bulgargas said last week it had transported 13.5 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas to Turkey, Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia last year, up 6 percent from 2001. The rise in gas transit boosted Bulgargas’s net profit to 99.03 million levs ($54.23 million) last year, the company said in a statement. Its 2001 net profit was 24.33 million levs. Bulgargas, Bulgaria’s only gas importer, which owns the entire pipeline network stretching over 2,200 kilometers (1,380 miles), had expanded its transit capacity to 18.7 bcm last year. Domestic gas consumption stood at 2.741 bcm last year, which was a 12 percent drop from 2001. Russia’s gas giant Gazprom, Bulgaria’s sole gas supplier, said last week it would sign a new agreement with Sofia in March to keep on exporting gas via the country to Turkey and southern Europe after 2010.