Bulgaria will refuse Russian gas after the current contract with Gazprom is over. The country will search for alternative gas sources and hope for a single contract for the EU countries, said Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Asen Vasilev. His statement comments on Kommersant.
“There are alternatives. Old tubes of transbalkan stream. There we have a power of about 20 billion cubic meters. m and can be used in both directions, we need 3 billion cubic meters. m. There are supplies from Qatar, Algeria. This is a pan-European strategy. The next 1-2 weeks will discuss at the European level the creation of a common gas contract for the entire EU. We expect that in the summer this mechanism will work, “said Asen Vasilev in an interview with the Bulgarian National Radio.
According to him, Bulgaria has alternative energy sources, including supplies from Qatar and Algeria. Also, the Bulgarian government plans to use the existing infrastructure of Greece and Turkey for procurement of liquefied natural gas and increase imports from Azerbaijan, which already exports gas to the country.
At the moment, almost all of Bulgaria imports from Russia, the Russian edition notes. The contract for gas supply from Gazprom ends in July 2022.