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| Turkey, Bulgaria gas deal a pipe dream yet |
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ANKARA- Although Turkey and Bulgaria have reached a verbal agreement on emergency energy deliveries in the wake of the recent Russia-Ukraine natural gas dispute, the signing of a deal seems distant due to the absence of a direct pipeline between the two neighbors.
Bulgaria, adversely affected by the dispute that has interrupted gas flows to the West, recently announced that Turkey had offered to provide the European Union-member country with 500,000 cubic meters of natural gas per day. Both countries have agreed in principle on natural gas deliveries and officials from Turkey's state-owned pipeline company Botaþ and Bulgaria's Bulgargaz will soon begin negotiations to discuss technical details, a Bulgarian diplomat told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review yesterday.
"But an agreement appears unlikely in the near future due to the lack of a direct pipeline between Turkey and Bulgaria; there is only a single line running from Russia through Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey," he said. For gas shipments between the two countries a new pipeline network is needed in the long run.
In order to supply Bulgaria with 500,000 cubic meters of gas, Turkey also needs to sign an export agreement because the country transfers energy supplies from Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran for its domestic consumption, said the Bulgarian diplomat.
The gas dispute that erupted between Russia and Ukraine left Bulgaria stranded. |
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