200,000 Workers Needed for Bulgaria’s Black Sea Coast as Labor Crisis Deepens
The Black Sea region in Bulgaria is facing a serious labor shortage ahead of the summer season
US diplomats are working in Greece to make sure the interconnector project between Athens and Sofia will be carried out, the Bulgarian National Radio has said.
"The interconnector with Bulgaria is a priority for Greece's energy policy as well," BNR's correspondent in Athens quotes Greek Energy Minister Skourletis as telling lawmakers in Parliament.
US energy envoy Amos Hochstein, who earlier this year visited Bulgaria, is in Greece on Wednesday and is set to meet Skourletis, in a trilateral meeting that is also to be attended by his Bulgarian counterpart Temenuzhka Petkova.
While visiting Bulgaria in January, US Secretary of State John Kerry asserted that the United States would put in effort to make sure the gas link project will be carried out and will be granted EU funding, for the sake of Bulgaria's energy diversification.
With early elections and the peak of the debt crisis in Greece this summer, alongside developments on the so-called "Turkish Stream" pipeline project, agreements on the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) were not signed in July as it was initially envisaged.
Bulgaria has been working for years to build interconnections with neighboring states, but the bilateral projects are either yet to begin or have come to a halt.
Once connected with Greece's energy system, Bulgaria will be able to receive gas from the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, which is set to carry gas from Azerbaijan via Turkey, Greece and Albania to Italy.
For the ninth consecutive year (excluding 2022), the electrical industry remains the largest contributor to Bulgaria's exports, as reported by the Bulgarian Association of Electrical Engineering and Electronics (BASEL)
European natural gas prices have climbed above €55 per megawatt-hour for the first time in 16 months, driven by colder temperatures across the continent that are increasing demand for heating fuel
Serbian oil and gas company NIS, controlled by Russia’s Gazprom, is considering exiting its operations in Bulgaria and Romania due to ongoing difficulties in both markets
The Russian company Lukoil initiated the process of selling its Bulgarian assets in June last year, Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov announced during a parliamentary hearing
In 2023, 10.6% of the population in the European Union reported being unable to keep their homes adequately warm
The Bulgarian government has announced a program to compensate businesses and non-household electricity subscribers for high energy costs until the end of March
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