Today a Gazprom delegation, led by Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, paid a working visit to the Republic of Bulgaria.

Within the visit Alexey Miller met with Georgy Parvanov, President of the Republic of Bulgaria, Sergey Stanishev, Prime-Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria and Rumen Ovcharov, Minister of Economy and Energy of the Republic of Bulgaria.

The parties signed a set of documents to further develop the cooperation in the Russian natural gas supply and transit sector.

The documents stipulate extending Russian gas transportation contracts up to 2030 via the territory of Bulgaria to Turkey, Greece and Macedonia. The documents identify the mechanism & forms of switching over to cash payments for Russian natural gas transit via Bulgaria. The volume of gas to be transported via Bulgaria during the said period will be 17.8 bcm annually.

The parties expressed their readiness to study the possibility of developing other projects for joint gas transportation via the territory of Bulgaria including the Southern corridor to the countries of Central Europe. The parties will also consider the possibility of constructing new UGS facilities in Bulgaria and creating a joint venture for natural gas marketing.

“The most important result of the finalized talks is that we have reached balance of interests that will lead to acquisitively new level of the long-term cooperation between Russia and Bulgaria in the energy sector,” said Alexey Miller.

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Russian natural gas has been exported to the Republic of Bulgaria since 1974. In 2005 the gas supply volume accounted for 3.1 bcm. At present Gazprom is the only gas exporter to Bulgaria.

Gazprom transports gas to Turkey, Greece and Macedonia via Bulgaria.

Based on the Agreement of April 27, 1998, Gazexport (a Gazprom wholly owned subsidiary) and Bulgargaz have signed a Transit Contract pertinent valid till 2010.

On March 2, 2003, Gazprom and Bulgargaz sealed a Memorandum to further deepen the Russian-Bulgarian relationships in the Russian natural gas supply and transit sector. The Memorandum stipulates using Bulgarian transit pipelines to Greece and Macedonia for gas supplies to southwestern Bulgaria.

Creating gas distribution networks in Bulgaria and accessing final natural gas consumers provides a high potential for the mutually beneficial cooperation between Russia and Bulgaria. Overgaz Inc (the Russian-Bulgarian that is 50 per cent owned by Gazprom) has the vast experience of carrying out said activities. Overgaz Inc holds interest in 32 trading companies and is a majority stockholder in 26 gas distribution companies holding 56 licenses for natural gas distribution & supply. In 2005 the company’s share accounted for 73.8 per cent in the Bulgarian natural gas distribution sector.