Varna is likely to become the natural gas hub of Bulgaria, Petar Dimitrov, Minister for Economy and Energy announced Tuesday while in the coastal city.

"The exploitation of the newly-discovered gas deposits Kavarna 1 and Kavarna 2, Kaliakra and the small deposits that meet local needs will boost the city's economic development," Minister Dimitrov stated late Tuesday, cited by Standart daily newspaper.

"The strategy for diversification of the gas supplies to Bulgaria also involves the construction of a depot in the Galata gas field and terminals for supply of liquefied and compressed natural gas at Port Varna. It is also possible that South Stream pipeline reaches Bulgaria at the coast in Varna," Dimitrov added.

"We are now fully dependent on Russia for natural gas supplies, but we think that by 2020 this dependency will fall to 59 percent, because by then Bulgaria will be able to meet 30 percent of its domestic demand for this fuel through supplies from the gas networks of Turkey, Greece, Italy ('GI) and the Nabucco pipeline, and by 2030 Bulgaria will become even less dependent on Russian gas, as the TGI pipeline will connect to our gas transportation network," Dimitrov concluded.

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