Rejecting accusations of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov about Bulgaria's stalled energy diversification, former Energy Minister Traicho Traikov said Tuesday that work on a gas supply diversification project involving import from Azerbaijan had started in 2009.

In a Tuesday interview for the morning broadcast of private TV station bTV, Traikov explained that the project envisaged transporting gas to a Georgian port where it would be compressed and loaded into tankers.

Bulgaria's former Economy and Energy Minister thereby opposed earlier claims of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, who stated in Batumi that "technically speaking, nobody has done anything about gas supply diversification."

In a Monday statement, the Prime Minister insisted that the only plausible route for achieving a gas supply diversification was from the Caspian Sea and Azerbaijan to the Georgian ports on the Black Sea and then on to the Bulgarian ports of Varna and Burgas.

He added that in order for the project to be implemented, Georgia had to wrap up work on the terminal at the port city of Poti.

Borisov explained that feasibility studies were being conducted at the port of Burgas for the construction of an LNG terminal.

"Unlike Romania, the project on which Bulgaria is working involves compressed gas, rather than liquefied gas," Traikov specified on Tuesday.

He argued that the liquefaction technology was more suitable for transporting bigger volumes of gas but noted that the liquefaction and regasification stations were quite expensive.

"Natural gas compression is more appropriate for smaller volumes and is also a cheaper option," Traikov noted.

He explained that the progress made so far was small because Azerbaijan was in favor of a land-based route via Turkey which had already been agreed.

The former Energy Minister said that the alternative gas transportation method was more expensive than carrying gas supplies through a pipeline.

In the course of Tuesday's interview, Traikov rejected rumors that he was about to joint the political project of former EU Commissioner Meglena Kuneva.

"If somebody has been a politician, they remain a politician," the former Economy Minister commented.

Traikov added that the traps he had allegedly placed before his successor, Minister Delyan Dobrev, had actually proved to be attainable goals.

"You see that the number-one goal was the Belene NPP project. The government made the right decision," Traikov pointed out.

"Goal number two was a reduction of gas prices by a minimum of 10%, which was also achieved," he added.

Traikov went on to speak about the "colossal" potential of energy efficiency in Bulgaria.

"If it gets implemented in Bulgaria, we shall not only need no new capacity, but we shall also be able to double export," the former Energy Minister explained.

He drew attention to the fact that an investment of only BGN 200 M in energy efficiency had erased the need to build 600MW of new capacity.

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