Bulgaria's prime minister Boyko Borisov said
on Monday setting up a regional gas hub in Bulgaria would involve an investment
of 2.2 billion euro ($2.5 billion) in new infrastructure.
The estimated
costs include the funding needed for the construction of 844 km of gas
pipelines, two compressor stations and a receiving terminal, Borisov said during
a presentation before an energy forum in Sofia, as quoted by the government
press office.
During the forum, which was attended by Maros Sefcovic,
vice-president for Energy Union, EU energy commissioner Miguel Arias Canete and
officials from countries in Central and Southeastern Europe (SEE), a high-level
group was set up to work on gas connectivity projects in the
region.
Bulgaria has the potential to become a gas hub for the SEE region
and the Europеan Union, Borisov said during the forum. "We have a well-designed
national gas transmission network, a gas storage facility and our own resources
of oil and gas which we are currently researching." The Bulgarian government
considers the full integration of the gas market in Central Europe and SEE as "a
prospect for laying the foundations of an energy union," he
added.
Securing alternative gas supply routes has come into sharper focus
for the countries in SEE after Russia announced in December it had abandoned
plans to build the South Stream gas pipeline, which was planned to carry gas
from Russia under the Black Sea, making landfall in Bulgaria and then continuing
through Serbia and Hungary towards Austria.
Bulgaria is the second most
dependent country on Russian gas in Europe after Slovakia. It covers 90% of its
gas needs with Russian imports.