Bulgarian outgoing Prime Minister Kiril Petkov said that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev assured him that Azerbaijan could supply between half a billion and one billion cubic meters of additional gas volumes to Bulgaria per year, adding that Bulgarian authorities now have to figure out how to transport that gas to Bulgaria.
According to him, Bulgaria’s problem at the moment is not where to find additional natural gas supplies, but the infrastructure to bring that gas to Bulgaria and additional efforts will be made in the future to resolve this situation.
On the other hand, outgoing Minister of Economy Korneliya Ninova welcomed Prime Minister’s efforts to diversify Bulgaria’s gas sources, but, she pointed out that there were no updates regarding his recent visit to Azerbaijan. According to her, there are no information on the volume of agreed gas supply, the price of gas and the terms of its purchase.
In September 2016, Bulgaria and Azerbaijan agreed on Azeri gas deliveries for Balkan gas hub that will start from 2020 in the amount of 1 billion cubic meters per year. However, the start of the deliveries was postponed due to delayed construction of gas interconnection between Greece and Bulgaria.