Bulgaria’s gas transport operator “Bulgartransgaz” has awarded a 1.4 million dollars contract yesterday to draft a conceptual project and a feasibility study of the Balkan gas hub, from which the energy should also come in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), it is said.
The contract was awarded to a consortium made by the Bulgarian EMG and the Swiss firm AF consult.
The feasibility study should assess the commercial and technical viability of the project and the risks associated with its implementation. Half of the costs will be covered by the EU.
In 2014, the Bulgarian government proposed to the European Commission to build a gas hub near the Black Sea port of Varna. From that place, gas would be supplied to Greece, Romania, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, BiH, Serbia, Macedonia and other countries.
The gas would come to this hub from many different sources: Russia, Bulgarian and Romanian deposits in the Black Sea, the Caspian region and the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as the Greek and Turkish LNG terminals.
Bulgaria is currently dependent on Russian gas which is imported only by route across Ukraine and Romania.
It is clear that the EU is supporting this project because it has the potential to reduce the dependence of this region, including the EU countries, on gas from Russia, which is one of the main strategic goals of Brussels.
(Source: Biznisinfo.ba)
