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 Sergey Stanishev, Prime-Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria.

The parties discussed the prospects for further Russian-Bulgarian cooperation development in the oil and gas sector. Particularly, the participants examined the issues relevant to Russian natural gas transit increase via Bulgaria to third countries.

Reference:

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, Gazprom Export (a Gazprom wholly owned subsidiary) and Bulgargaz have signed a pertinent Transit Contract. In December 2006 the Contract was extended up to 2030. The parties signed a set of documents identifying the mechanism & forms of switching over to cash payments for Russian natural gas transit via Bulgaria.