Bulgaria To Not Get Transit Fees for South Stream for 15 yrs
Sofia and Moscow have agreed that Bulgaria will not contribute financially to the construction of South Stream gas pipeline but will not get transit fees for the pipeline on its territory in the course of 15 years, online news provider mediapool.bg reported.
These terms will be included a final agreement on the project which will be signed in mid-November, mediapool reported, quoting unnamed sources familiar with the talks.
On Saturday economy and energy minister Delyan Dobrev commented before reporters that Bulgaria's financial participation in the project so far is symbolic, as the Bulgarian Energy Holding has contributed 6.0 million euro to the 12 million euro capital of South Stream Bulgaria project company, a joint venture between BEH and Russia's Gazprom set up to build and operate the pipeline on Bulgarian territory.
The South Stream pipeline is expected to carry 63 billion cubic metres of Russian natural gas per year under the Black Sea to the Bulgarian coast. Slovenia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary and Greece are partners in the onshore section of the pipeline.
Bulgaria imports almost all the natural gas it needs from Russia through a pipeline crossing the territories of Ukraine, Moldova and Romania.