Bulgaria is to start building a natural gas supply pipeline to the northeastern city of Silistra in the fall of 2012, Kiril Temelkov, CEO of state company Bulgartransgaz, announced Monday.

The future extension of the major Bulgarian gas pipeline ring will start from the northeastern city of Dobrich, and will bring Russian natural gas to Silistra on the Danube, and several small-town municipalities in the districts of Dobrich and Silistra such as Tervel, Dulovo, Alfatar, and Kaynardzha.

The construction of the pipeline that will allow the industrial plants and households in Silistra to be fueled with natural gas will cost about EUR 12 M; 70% of those will come from the EU funding for the decommissioning of the old reactors of the Bulgarian NPP Kozloduy.

The rest will be provided from Bulgartransgaz, a subsidiary of the Bulgarian state natural gas company Bulgargaz. The compensations for the land owners will amount to about BGN 1 M, and will be fully assumed by Bulgartransgaz.

The 80-km pipeline's construction will create 200 jobs in one of the Bulgarian regions with the highest unemployment rate, with a few dozen permanent jobs to be created once the project is completed.

Silistra is close to the point where the Russian natural gas pipeline enters Bulgaria from Romania but has nonetheless remained without a pipeline supply, as have some of the other Bulgarian provinces that are further away from the central parts of the country such the Northwest.

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