Boyko Borisov, ex Bulgarian Prime Minister and leader of center-right party GERB, has vowed transparent oil and gas exploration tenders as soon as the party returns to power.

Speaking Tuesday at a round table discussion on energy security at the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington, he recommended Black Sea oil and gas fields as a great investment opportunity to US companies.

Borisov, as cited by the press office of GERB, boasted that a consortium of three European companies had been awarded a concession contract for the Black Sea Khan Asparuh bloc during the term in office of the GERB government, adding that gas production at the site was expected to start in a few years' time.

"Unfortunately, when the communists came to power, they froze all these investment opportunities and they also deprived Bulgaria, as well as the EU, of the chance to extract cheap raw materials, thereby forcing the country to keep buying expensive Russian gas. When the European Commission realized what the communists were doing, they imposed an EU funds freeze on Bulgaria and today our government faces ultimate collapse," Borisov added.

The leader of GERB informed US investors that the availability of such resources in Bulgaria made it possible to build steam-electric power plants because the country had a power grid allowing exports to countries in the region, as well as on the territory of Southeastern Europe as a whole.

He also reiterated his support for the establishment of an EU Energy Union.

Borisov said that Bulgaria was also a great place for tourism, construction, and agriculture investments.

"Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has my full support on an EU scale for an EU Energy Union. I am convinced that the EU realized after the crisis in Ukraine that we are much stronger united, and that gas price talks between the EC President and Russia would be much easier and much more efficient than negotiations conducted by the separate Prime Ministers. Apart from that, the establishment of a Union will enable the EU and the US to discuss LNG supplies from the US depending on the needs of the European market. LNG terminals can be built at European ports through public-private partnership. These are great investment opportunities too, but first of all, they are a means of achieving a diversification of the Bulgarian and the European energy systems" he commented.

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