Bulgaria, which aims to reduce its almost total dependence on Russian gas supplies, will soon publish details of a licensing round to open the Silistar and Teres oil and gas blocks in the Black Sea, a senior government official has said.

In an interview with Reuters, Bulgaria's Deputy Energy Minister Zhecho Stankov said on Wednesday that  diversification from Russia and making Bulgaria an energy hub are priority tasks for the southeast European country.

Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of EU energy and environment ministers in Latvia’s capital Riga, Stankov told Reuters: "We want to change to south to north," adding the status quo was from the Russian north to the south.

"We want (pipelines) TAP, TANAP and a vertical corridor."

You can read the full Reuters article “Bulgaria seeks to redraw EU pipeline map away from Russia” here.