June 4 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria and Azerbaijan on Wednesday agreed to launch talks on the supply of 1.0 billion cubic metres annually of Azeri gas to Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Economy and Energy Ministry said.
The two countries signed a protocol envisaging cooperation in the supplies of natural gas through a possible deal between Bulgarian state-run gas monopoly Bulgargaz and Azeri state energy firm SOCAR for the delivery of 1.0 billion cubic metres annually of Azeri gas to Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Economy and Energy Ministry said in a statement.
"This amount will be transported through existing gas pipelines and also through the planned gas pipeline Nabucco, other infrastructure or mechanisms," the statement said.
In March, Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov said that Bulgaria was ready to buy some 1.0 billion cubic metres of Azeri gas a year to feed into the future Nabucco project. Parvanov said back then that the Azeri gas could be transported to Bulgaria after Bulgaria's gas network is hooked up to the nearby Turkey-Greece link, that is part of the Turkey-Greece-Italy (TGI) gas pipeline, designed to link Azerbaijan and Italy and carry Azeri and Iranian gas to Europe.
"Bulgaria will assist the transit of Azeri natural gas to southeast Europe and other European states using the capacities of the Bulgarian gas transmission network," the statement added. "For its part, Azerbaijan will assist the participation of Bulgarian companies in the prospecting, research and extraction of natural gas and oil on its territory."
Bulgaria together with five other states is a shareholder in the planned key gas pipeline project Nabucco worth 7.9 billion euro ($12.2 billion) and designed to carry 31 billion cubic metres of Caspian natural gas to Europe. The pipeline is aimed at diversifying European gas supply from dependency on Russian deliveries.
Bulgaria, whose gas supplies come almost solely from Russia, also is a shareholder in a 10 billion euro Russian-led South Stream project. The joint project of Russia's gas giant Gazprom and Italian oil and gas company Eni is designed to carry 30 billion cubic metres of Russian gas yearly to Austria and Italy under the Black Sea and via Bulgarian territory.
($ = 0.6477 euro)