The
Bulgarian government has unveiled a package of energy cooperation projects on
which it would seek to work with Azerbaijan, Bulgaria's Ambassador to the
country has said. According to reports by the Trend News Agency, Baku is being
offered to take part in the construction of filling stations, gas depots, and oil
refineries.
"Bulgaria
is interested in buying Azeri gas and government plans are about a billion
cubic meters per year," Trend quotes Ambassador Emil Karimov as saying. Mr
Karimov has added that the volume could go up in the future.
Gas
supplies from Azerbaijan to Bulgaria via the future Trans-Adriatic Pipeline
(TAP) network are tied to the construction of additional infrastructure, namely
the Bulgaria-Greece interconnector (IGB), which has suffered from several
delays over the past months. If successfully built and linked to TAP, the IGB
could carry gas to the rest of Southeast Europe, though other routes to
transport the volumes from the new infrastructure are also being considered.
In
Karimov's words, Azerbaijan is studying the projects tabled by Bulgaria and is
analyzing their economic viability. The respective energy ministries are
yet to comment.