BULGARIA’S POSITION ON SOUTH STREAM PROJECT REMAINS UNCHANGED

The position of Bulgaria on the construction of South Stream pipeline project is firm and will not change,  the Minister of the Economy and Energy, Dragomir Stoynev, stated in the BNT morning programme ‘The Day Begins’.

He contradicted the publications according to which the construction of the gas pipeline was frozen because of the disputes between European Union and Russia over Ukraine. The minister said that although the negotiations for the gas pipeline were postponed, the Bulgarian experts continued their work on the project.

“If the gas supply stops due to the crisis in Ukraine, we can resort to imports of residual fuel oil and natural gas from Greece, but up to certain amounts”, Stoynev noted and added that everything depended on the demand.

The minister empathized that the consequences might affect the whole of Europe and thereby stressed that the Bulgarian government worked towards diversification in economic aspect. At present natural gas is being injected in the storage facility in Chiren, but no gas is consumed from the storage in order to guarantee supply in the event of crisis, he added.

Minister Stoynev also said that there was a risk of losing Russian tourists аnd this might affect the economy of Bulgaria.