Borisov and Putin conducted a phone conversation on Wednesday. Photo by EPA/BGNES
Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have had a telephone conversation over the large-scale joint energy projects.
The Borisov-Putin telephone call was made Wednesday night. It was reported by the Russian government’s press service as cited by RIA Novosti.
The formal announcement, however, has revealed little detail about the matter of the talks other than “energy cooperation and the bilateral economic relations.”
RIA Novosti reminds that in January 2008 Bulgaria and Russia an agreement on the South Stream project designed to transport Russian gas to Western Europe bypassing Ukraine.
However, Gazprom announced in June the possibility of re-routing South Stream through Romania, instead of Bulgaria, after Borisov said that his country would not proceed with previous agreements to build the joint gas pipeline with Russia and Greece.
The issue was settled on July 16, when the counties signed a road map for the technical and economic assessment of Bulgaria's section of the pipeline.
The South Stream pipeline, which is considered a rival to the EU-backed Nabucco pipeline, is scheduled to be launched in December 2015.
The offshore part, operated by Russia's Gazprom and Italy's ENI, will run for 900 km (559 miles) from Russia's mainland under the Black Sea to the Bulgarian coast and will carry up to 63 billion cubic meters of gas a year.
Russia has signed intergovernmental agreements have been signed with Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia and Austria for the implementation of the section of the pipeline that will run over land.