Bulgaria and Azerbaijan are inching closer to a deal that would allow Azeri gas deliveries of about 2 billion cubic meters (bcm) to the Balkan country by the end of 2013, state gas company Bulgartransgaz said yesterday. Bulgaria has stepped up efforts to reduce its almost complete dependence on Russian gas by diversifying routes and supplies after a dispute between Russia and Ukraine left it without gas for weeks in early 2009.
Under the project, Azeri gas would be transported via a pipeline to Georgia to be compressed and shipped by tankers to Bulgaria’s Black Sea port of Varna, said Ivan Drenovichki, executive director of Bulgartansgaz. Azeri state oil company SOCAR, Bulgartransgaz and Georgian Oil and Gas Company are set to launch a feasibility study for the project at a meeting planned for September 23-24, he said. “We have an initial agreement to launch a feasibility study. In September, we are to make this decision,” Drenovichki said. “If all goes well and the project proves expedient, first deliveries can start at the end of 2013,” he said. Bulgaria’s gas consumption averages about 4 bcm a year, he said.
The study will define the value of the project, which Drenovichki said could cost hundreds of millions of dollars, with over 85 percent of the funds needed for tankers. Sofia signed a memorandum of understanding for gas deliveries with Baku last November, saying some deliveries could be transported by the EU-backed Nabucco pipeline, aimed to carry natural gas from the Caspian region to Europe. The Nabucco project faces rivalry from the Russia-led South Stream gas pipeline project, which aims to cement Moscow’s position as key gas supplier to Europe.