Bulgaria To Study Options for Yemen Gas Deliveries

Economic delegations from the two countries agreed to establish contacts between the Bulgarian Energy Holding and Yemen LNG for studying possibilities and terms for deliveries of liquified natural gas to Bulgaria from Yemen, the ministry said in a statement without providing further details.

Tha gas could feed the EU-backed gas pipeline project Nabucco that would supply gas to Europe from the Caspian region and aimed at decreasing the dependence of European gas supplies on Russian deliveries. Bulgaria, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Romania and Turkey are shareholders in the Nabucco project estimated at 7.9 billion euro ($10.7 billion).

In June, Bulgaria's Economy Minister Petar Dimitrov said the European Commission, the EU countries that are major gas consumers, gas producers like Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Iraq and Eqypt, as well as the U.S. playing a key role in Iraq, should be involved in a political dialogue to enhance the support for Nabucco.

Bulgaria, whose gas supplies come almost solely from Russia, also is a shareholder in a 10 billion euro Russian-led South Stream, a joint gas pipeline project of Russia's gas giant Gazprom and Italian oil and gas company Eni.

($ = 0.739 euro)