Today, at Gazprom’s Headquarters, Alexey Miller, Chairman of Gazprom’s Management Committee met with Rumen Ovcharov, Economy and Energy Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria.

The parties discussed the prospects for mutual cooperation in the oil and gas business, focusing on the possibility of increasing gas transmission volumes.

The main focus of the meeting fell on the matter of switching to the European terms & conditions for Russian gas delivery and transit via Bulgaria.

Alexey Miller and Rumen Ovcharov also looked into the development of new gas transmission networks and appropriate infrastructure for gas supply in Bulgaria.

Additionally the parties reviewed the possibility of jointly constructing the Bourgas - Alexandroupolis oil pipeline.

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Russian natural gas supplies were first launched to Bulgaria in 1974. Over 2005 Bulgaria received a total of 3.1 bcm of Russian gas. At present Gazprom is the only gas exporter to Bulgaria.

Natural gas is transited by Gazprom via Bulgaria to Turkey, Greece and Macedonia in pursuance of the 23 July 1986 Agreement between the Government of the USSR and the Government of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria. Said Agreement still remains in full force in the relationships between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Bulgaria. Gazexport (a Gazprom wholly owned subsidiary) and Bulgargaz have inked a Gas Transit Contract based on an Agreement dated 27 April 1998.

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

In September 2000 Russia, Greece and Bulgaria set up a tripartite Working Committee with the view of engineering the Bourgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline. At present the Committee is working on a feasibility study for the project.