Azernews.Az

SOFIA – The start of the EU-sponsored gas transit pipeline Nabucco should be given with the construction of a gas network connection between Bulgaria and Turkey within one year, Economy Minister Traikov was quoted by Sofia news agency as saying.

Traikov, who spoke Monday on the occasion of his first year in office, declared that the gas pipeline between Bulgaria and Turkey will be funded by the EU with EUR 200 M provided under the EU plan for economic recovery.

He set as a goal for himself to give the start of the construction of new pipe before the end of his second year in office, and explicitly pointed out that the new pipeline will be built in accordance with the requirements for Nabucco so that it can become the first completed and operational section of the future large-scale pipeline project Nabucco which is supposed to bring Middle Eastern and Caspian natural gas to the EU by going around Russia.

Traikov also announced that the parameters of the connection between the gas transport networks of Bulgaria and Greece were currently being renegotiated because the project drafted by the previous government did not protect Bulgaria’s best interest.

He pointed out that the future Bulgaria-Greece pipeline will probably be owned by a joint Bulgarian-Greek company.

Bulgaria took up several projects to link its gas network to that of its neighbors after the Russian-Ukrainian gas crisis of January 2009 exposed the country’s vulnerability because it receives over 90% of its natural gas from one supplier – Russia’s Gazprom.