Bulgaria eyes buying more gas from Azerbaijan - ex-president

By Trend

Bulgaria will continue buying more gas from Azerbaijan, and facilitating infrastructure improvement, so Azerbaijan could become a valuable energy supplier to Europe, ex-President of Bulgaria Rosen Plevneliev told Trend on the sidelines of the IX Global Baku Forum.

According to Plevneliev, after Russia’s Gazprom has cut gas deliveries to Bulgaria, seven million people are now left in instability.

“Luckily, Bulgaria is a member of the EU. We have built interconnectors with Greece, Turkey, and Romania. And now, we are also very happy for our partnership with Azerbaijan,” he said.

As the ex-president noted, it was him in the office, when the contract on Bulgaria's purchase of one billion cubic meters of gas from Azerbaijan was signed.

“Those deliveries are starting now. So, in a moment of crisis Azerbaijan is helping us. We are very proud of our friendship and strategic partnership with Azerbaijan,” Plevneliev added.

The Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) has already started test gas supplies. The interconnector with Greece is an entirely new route for the transmission of natural gas to Europe and will give Bulgaria and the region access to supplies from new sources. The project will connect the country with the Southern Gas Corridor and has excellent synergy with other major energy projects such as TAP, TANAP, EastMed and the LNG terminal at Alexandroupolis.