Bulgaria signed a deal Saturday to import liquefied and compressed natural gas from Egypt in an attempt to wean itself off Russian deliveries, on which it is almost entirely dependent.
Bulgaria's Economy and Energy Minister Petar Dimitrov and Egypt's Oil Minister Sameh Fahmy inked the intergovernmental memorandum for cooperation in the gas sphere on the sidelines of an international gas summit in Sofia.
"This deal is extremely important for Bulgaria after the January crisis, as it opens possibilities for Bulgaria to import liquefied and compressed gas from Egypt," Dimitrov said after the signing.
Bulgaria was among the hardest hit by a Russia-Ukraine price row that cut Russian natural gas supplies to European consumers in the middle of winter.
Following the crisis, the country, which is nearly totally dependent on Russian gas deliveries via Ukraine for its consumption, has sought ways to diversify its supplies.
Dimitrov said Saturday that Egyptian gas could be delivered to Bulgaria via existing or new terminals in Greece and Turkey, but added that concrete terms on quantities, timelines and routes had yet to be discussed.
Fahmy had said during a visit to Sofia earlier this year that Egypt could pump around 1 billion cubic meters of gas to Bulgaria each year from 2011-2012.
Bulgaria signed an agreement Friday to link its gas transportation network to that of neighbouring Greece, enabling it to receive gas from terminals on Greece's Aegean coast and from the Turkey-Greece-Italy pipeline.
Bulgaria also reached an agreement in principle to build a new LNG terminal on Greek territory to which Bulgaria could have access to receive gas from third countries.