Bulgaria, Azerbaijan Discuss Georgia Natural Gas Transit Option

Bulgaria and Azerbaijan are discussing the possibility of creating a compressed natural gas processing plant in Georgia so as to ship the final product to Bulgaria and Romania.

This was revealed by Azeri oil expert Ilham Shaban for ‘Nezasimaya Gazeta’. He said that an Azerbaijan-Bulgaria working group is discussing a number of possibilities for supplying Bulgaria with natural gas.

Shaban however warned that to implement such a project would require huge resources and that its realization is unlikely in the near future. He continued that Azerbaijan may be more interested in the results of negotiations between Bulgaria and Turkey and Greece as a possible alternative supply route may become available through these countries.

In November Bulgaria’s Minister of Economy, Energy, and Tourism, Traicho Traikov, announced that Bulgaria’s state-owned gas operator Bulgartransgaz, a subsidiary of Bulgargaz, and the Azerbaijan state gas company GNKAR are going to set up a joint venture.

Traikov received authorization by the Council of Ministers to sign a cooperation memorandum for the setting up of the joint venture with the Energy Minister of Azerbaijan, who was part of the delegation led by the Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev in Sofia.