/ world today news/ Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov recently stated that the aborted project for the South Stream gas pipeline can be carried out under the name “Bulgarian Stream”, writes “Vestnik Kavkaza” in an article analyzing the prospects of this idea.
According to Borisov, Russian gas transported along the bottom of the Black Sea can be stored in the Balkan gas storage facility, which will be built not far from Varna. According to preliminary estimates, the capacity of the Russian pipeline will be 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
In his previous statements, Borisov said that “Balkan” will make Sofia the main transit country for gas for South-Eastern and Central Europe. According to him, Bulgaria can receive not only Russian gas, but also blue fuel from Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, as well as from Romanian and Bulgarian deposits.
Ivan Kapitonov, a senior research associate in the Department of Energy Policy at the Institute of Economics at the Russian Academy of Sciences, however, doubts the prospects for the implementation of such a project.
“Such an option would correspond to the Third Energy Package, which we are trying to circumvent, but this is not access to the immediate consumer … As you understand, we are dealing with several intermediaries here, to whom a certain percentage will have to be paid, and in general, such a scheme can to be uncomfortable, more precisely, “Gazprom” has always refused it in the past,” notes the expert.
“If we start with such an expensive infrastructure, we ourselves will be interested in supplying raw materials to buyers via this infrastructure. And Europe itself, if it builds or helps build this infrastructure, will have an interest in filling this infrastructure. I.e. the interests of both the supplier and the buyer coincide,” explains Kapitonov.
“At the same time, the currently existing anti-Russian sentiments, which, in my opinion, complicate making such a decision, also call into question the prospects for creating such an infrastructure,” he adds.
According to the senior analyst from “Uralsib Capital” Alexey Kokin, the role that the Bulgarian company will play will be very important for Borisov’s possible idea. “Will it play the same role that Turkey wanted to play? Not just an intermediary, but a company that buys gas from Gazprom and then sells it on the market? Or will it take on the more modest mediating role? It’s not clear yet. In this regard, Bulgaria has significantly smaller opportunities than Turkey,” the expert points out.
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