Bulgaria, Azerbaijan Seal Natural Gas Supplies JV Deal

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev will pay on Friday a working visit to Sofia at the invitation of his Bulgarian counterpart Georgi Parvanov. Photo by EPA/BGNES

Bulgaria and Azerbaijan are expected to sign an agreement for cooperation in the energy field on Friday as President Ilham Aliyev is paying a working visit to Sofia at the invitation of his Bulgarian counterpart Georgi Parvanov.

Earlier in the week Bulgaria’s Minister of Economy, Energy, and Tourism, Traicho Traikov, announced that Bulgaria’s state-owned gas operator Bulgartransgaz, a subsidiary of Bulgargaz, and the Azerbaijan state gas company GNKAR are going to set up a joint venture.

Traikov received authorization by the Council of Ministers to sign a cooperation memorandum for the setting up of the joint venture with the Energy Minister of Azerbaijan, who is going to be part of the delegation led by the Azerbaijan President in Sofia.

The Bulgaria-Azerbaijan joint company is going to explore the possibilities for the delivery of natural gas from Azerbaijan to Bulgaria, including as both finding supplies for the quota of natural gas that Bulgaria will be entitled to receive through the Nabucco gas transit pipeline, and for the transit of compressed natural gas with tankers through the Black Sea.

If the project is realized, Bulgaria will not have to participate in the construction of a liquefied natural gas terminal.

As a result of the January 2009 Russia-Ukraine gas crisis, the Bulgarian authorities considered pushing for the setting up of such a terminal in Greece or Turkey in order to diversify the country’s gas supplies.

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