Azeri natural gas starts flowing to Bulgaria on 1 January 2021

From 31 December, Bulgaria will start receiving natural gas from Azerbaijan. According to the signed contract between Bulgargaz and the Azerbaijani oil company SOCAR, 1 billion cubic meters of gas per year will be delivered to our country from the Shah Deniz 2 gas field for a period of 25 years, the government press office reported.

"We guarantee that on 1 January next year we have not only achieved energy diversification, but will also have supplies of Azeri gas, which enters the territory of Bulgaria via Greece.

Minister of Energy Temenuzhka Petkova highlighted the importance of the treaty with Azerbaijan. "This is an extremely important contract that is related to the implementation of our priorities – the diversification of natural gas supplies. It will give us the opportunity from 31 December this year for Bulgaria to have a new, different source", Petkova said.

By early October next year, natural gas will flow to Bulgaria through a temporary delivery point - Kulata, which connects the Trans-Adriatic pipeline (TAP) with the Greek gas transmission system. In the meantime , we continue to build the Greece-Bulgaria Gas Interconnector. It is the connection point between TAP and IGB - Komotini, that will be the point of supply of Azerbaijani gas after this transition period of several months. The delay in building the interconnector is due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the government press service reported.