Bulgaria Energy Minister Secures Gas Supplies from Egypt

Bulgaria’s Energy Minister, Petar Dimitrov, (L) at the Sofia Energy Forum along with PM Stanishev (R). Photo by Sofia Photo Agency

Bulgaria is going to receive natural gas supplies from Egypt, Bulgaria's Energy Minister, Petar Dimitrov, announced Saturday.

The agreement was reached in the frame of the Energy Summit in Sofia. Dimitrov and the Egyptian Petroleum Minister, Sameh Fahmi, signed a memorandum for bilateral collaboration in the gas supply sector.

Dimitrov further said he reached an agreement with his Greek colleagues for the construction of a gas terminal which will be used to transfer Egyptian gas to Bulgaria. The memorandum with Greece provides a connection for Bulgaria with the "Turkey-Greece-Italy" gas line, securing an alternative to Russian supplies and defined by the Energy Minister as top priority.

"The January crisis forced us to seek alternatives and one of them is natural gas supply from Egypt. The exact quantities are yet to be determined due to some limitations imposed by the Egyptian Parliament, but they would expire at the end of the year," Dimitrov explained.