Georgia is going to complete its pipeline infrastructure in order to provide for the transit of liquefied natural gas to Bulgaria from Azerbaijan and potentially from sources from Central Asia.

This became clear during Wednesday’s meeting of Bulgaria’s Economy and Energy Minister Traicho Traikov and the Georgian Energy Minister, Alexandre Khetaguri, in Sofia. The two Ministers followed up on their talks from January 2010 in the Georgian Black Sea port Batumi.

Minister Khetaguri has declared Georgia’s readiness to participate in the discussions for transit of natural gas from Azerbaijan to Bulgaria through the Black Sea. During the visit of President Aliyev to Sofia in the fall of 2009, Azerbaijan made clear its readiness to sell natural gas to Bulgaria.

The Georgian Energy Minister has notified his Bulgarian counterpart that his country was ready to complete by the end of 2010 an additional 30 km pipeline to connect its gas transit system to the Port of Supsa on the Black Sea.

This will allow Georgia to increase its capacity for transiting natural gas by 3 billion cubic meters, and will make possible the export of liquefied natural gas to Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Economy Ministry said in a statement.

However, Georgia will also have to construct a terminal for liquefied natural gas in Supsa – this project is already included in the investment program of the Georgian government.

Traikov and Khetaguri agreed to continue their talks on the natural gas transit project in late March. The Georgian Minister was in Bulgaria for the Black Sea Energy Forum attended Tuesday also by the EU Energy Commissioner Guenter Oettinger.

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