Azernews.Az

BAKU - Bulgaria can get 2 billion cubic meters of Azeri natural gas annually by sea as of 2013, meeting half of its demand and lowering its dependence on Russian gas supplies, local media reported on Friday.

Azeri gas supplies by tankers across the Black Sea can provide for half of Bulgaria's needs, considering that the country consumes between 3.0 and 6.0 billion cubic meters annually, Standart daily quoted the chief executive officer of Bulgaria's gas transmission system operator Bulgartransgaz, Ivan Drenovichki, as saying.

Earlier this week representatives of Bulgartransgaz, Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR and the consortium on Azerbaijan’s giant Shahdaniz field in the Caspian Sea comprising British Petroleum, Statoil and Total, discussed in Baku a project for the construction of two compressed natural gas (CNG) terminals - one in Georgia and another one near the Bulgarian Black Sea city of Varna.

Next week Bulgaria will also start work on the construction of a gas interconnection line with Turkey, Standart quoted head of the Bulgartransgaz board of directors, Georgi Gegov, as saying.

Bulgaria currently receives almost all the natural gas it needs from Russia via a pipeline running through Ukraine and Romania.

Bulgaria is part of the European Union-backed Nabucco pipeline that would carry natural gas from the Caspian region to Europe, as a means to diversify its gas dependence on Russia.