Bulgarian premier to visit Baku

Bulgarian Premier Plamen Oresharski will visit Azerbaijan from February 18 to 20, reads the information on the web site of the Azerbaijan Ministry of Energy.

Yesterday Azerbaijani Energy Minister Natig Aliyev met with Bulgarian Minister of Economy and Energy Dragomir Stoynev.

“At the meeting the sides mentioned the necessity to expand bilateral cooperation in the economic, humanitarian, industrial and energy fields,” reads the information.

Stonev also said at the meeting that Azerbaijan and Bulgaria have been negotiating the gas deliveries.

As a part of the Shah-Deniz-2 project Bulgaria will import 1 billion cub.m. of Azerbaijani gas since 2019. The commercial contract for 25 years was signed on September 19, 2013. Bulgaria plans to import Azerbaijani gas via the branch of the trans-Adriatic pipeline (TAP), which will connect Greece with the Bulgarian main system.

However, the Bulgarian authorities consider another option of the Azerbaijani gas import. The Bulgarian authorities do not wish to wait till 2019 and consider building the connecting pipeline Turkey-Bulgaria to receive gas from the Shah-Deniz Phase 1. Azerbaijan has a possibility to increase production on the Shah-Deniz 1 right now, but it has no the market for this gas.