SOFIA (Bulgaria), November 22 (SeeNews) – Bulgaria expects to receive an official letter from Gazprom about the Russian company's decision for the construction of a string of the TurkStream pipeline for transit of Russian gas to Europe through Bulgarian territory, a government official said on Thursday.
"Our colleagues from Gazprom told the Russian media that they have decided that the pipeline will pass through our country. We are looking forward to receiving a letter from Gazprom about their decision," Bulgarian deputy energy minister Krasimir Parvanov said in a broadcast aired by public radio station BNR.
The potential income from the transit of Russian gas through Bulgaria will stand at 4.0 billion levs, Parvanov said.
Gazprom plans to build the string of the TurkStream pipeline for transit of Russian gas to Europe on the territory of Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and Slovakia, Russian daily Kommersant reported on Thursday, quoting data from documents of gas transmission system operators from those countries.
In December 2014, Russia abandoned - over objections from the European Commission - its plans to build the South Stream gas pipeline designed to carry Russian gas under the Black Sea to Bulgaria and from there to central and southern Europe but said it is ready to build another pipeline system to Turkey instead (TurkStream).
The TurkStream offshore gas pipeline, to stretch for 930 km across the Black Sea from Russia to Turkey, will consist of two parallel strings with annual capacity of 15.75 billion cubic metres of gas. One of the strings is intended for consumers in Turkey, while the second will carry gas to customers in South and Southeast Europe.