State-run Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) and Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR signed a memorandum of cooperation in the gas sector, Bulgaria's economy ministry said.
The two companies will work for securing Azeri gas supplies to the Southeast European country once a gas interconnector between Bulgaria and Turkey is built, which is expected to happen in 2014, the ministry said in a statement, specifying that the Azeri gas supplies are expected before the completion of the second stage of the Shah Deniz gas field project seen after 2017.
No financial details were disclosed.
BEH and SOCAR will also cooperate in ensuring transit to Europe of gas extracted from the Shah Deniz field during the project's second stage and from other gas fields in the Caucasian country, the statement added.
Bulgaria imports almost all the natural gas it needs from Russia through a pipeline crossing the territories of Ukraine, Moldova and Romania.
Bulgaria and Azerbaijan will also work together on the construction of a new gas storage facility in Bulgaria and in natural gas and oil prospecting, exploration and extraction.