Russia will lower the price of natural gas for Bulgaria by 11.1% when the shareholders in the South Stream pipeline project - Russia's Gazprom and Bulgarian state-owned Bulgartransgaz - resolve the outstanding issues, Bulgaria's economy minister said.
When all issues are resolved and Bulgaria makes a final investment decision, it will get an 11.1% cut in the price of gas supplies retroactively, from April 1, state-run Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) reported on Monday quoting economy minister Delyan Dobrev.
The construction of the pipeline cannot begin because no contractors to carry out an environmental impact assessment and territorial planning of the project have been chosen yet, local business newspaper Capital Daily reported. Without an environmental impact assessment study Bulgaria cannot sign an investment agreement on the South Stream project, which Russia expects to kick off in November.