Bulgarian Minister of Energy Alexander Nikolov said that a location for deliveries of liquefied natural gas (LNG) by US tankers for Bulgaria has been secured. He said that the location is specified in contracts signed by state-owned Bulgargaz, but did not name that specific location.
Two cargoes of liquefied natural gas from the United States were contracted directly with a US company during Prime Minister Petkov’s visit to Washington earlier in May. The delivery of US LNG is expected on 8 and 23 June.
Minister Nikolov said that negotiations for LNG deliveries from the US started in January and have been going on for several months in order to diversify supplies at a normal price. Several companies in the US can supply LNG and all of them have been reached and asked to send offers. He would not say which company will supply LNG to Bulgaria due to confidentiality clauses.
He added that Bulgaria should take advantage of all possible infrastructure solutions from all neighboring countries. To this end, all options have been examined, including the Alexandroupoli LNG terminal, which will be completed at the end of next year. However, this terminal, as well as the one in Revythoussa, cannot meet the needs of the whole region, which is why Turkey will be much better option. However, there are certain obstacles because Turkish legislation on the matter is not in line with that of the EU.
He again confirmed that the full volume of natural gas from Azerbaijan to the amount of 1 billion cubic meters per year will start flowing as of 1 July, adding that there will be no more delays in the construction of Greece-Bulgaria gas interconnection. Even if the interconnection is not in commercial operation by 1 July, all possible alternative routes will be used to deliver the full contracted volume of natural gas from Azerbaijan.
