Bulgaria's Bulgargaz said it expects to transport 17.1
billion cubic meters (bcm) of Russian natural gas to Turkey, Greece and
the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia this year, up 13.3 percent
from 2006, a company official said yesterday.
Angel Semerdzhiev,
executive director of Bulgargas's transit unit, Bulgartransgaz,
Bulgaria, told an economic forum the transit of gas from Russian giant
Gazprom to the Balkan countries would rise further to 17.5 bcm in 2008.
Semerdzhiev said the company was working to expand and upgrade its
network of 945 kilometers of transit pipelines to secure steady
supplies. Bulgaria renewed its gas contract with Gazprom last year,
under which the Russian firm agreed to guarantee transits of 17.8 bcm a
year plus an option for another 5 bcm depending on the growth of gas
consumption in the region.