site.btaPM Borissov: "Drilling for Oil, Gas in Bulgaria's Black Sea Shelf to Start in February"

PM Borissov: "Drilling for Oil, Gas in Bulgaria's Black Sea Shelf to Start in February"

Varna, on the Black Sea, August 15 (BTA) - Drilling for oil and
natural gas in Bulgaria's Black Sea shelf is supposed to start
in February, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said here
on Saturday. In his words, the deposits are "huge".

"Nobody is happy to see Bulgaria independent of [imported] gas
because we're customers. Annually, we pay 6,700 million dollars
for hydrocarbons while our own deposits remain unexploited. My
problems with the Russians began after I awarded the [gas
exploration] concession to the large consortium of one Austrian,
 one French and one Spanish company. The Russians will hate to
see their customer gone," the PM pointed out.

Accompanied by Transport Minister Ivaylo Moskovski and the Chief
 of Defence, Vice Admiral Roumen Nikolov, the PM visited the
Vaptsarov Naval Academy in Varna, where he opened a new virtual
navigation complex with simulators for training future sea
captains.

Also on Tuesday, Borissov inaugurated a Coastal Centre for
Traffic Management in Varna. He said that this centre and
another one, opened recently in Bourgas, can help vessels in
distress and suppress trafficking in human being and smuggling
of goods. "The new navigation equipment installed at the Coastal
 Centre monitors all the traffic, and a ship and a barge can no
longer approach unnoticed," he said.

The Coastal Centre has been constructed under a 40 million leva
Vessel Traffic Management Information System (VTMIS) project
financed by Operational Programme Transport 2007-2013. The two
centres in Bourgas and Varna cost some 4 million leva to build.
The Coastal Centre also hosts the Bulgarian Operating Centre of
the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS).

At the opening of the Centre, Borissov said that on Friday the
State Agency for National Security, the National Customs Agency,
 the organized crime control authorities and other services
launched checks about fuel manipulation as part of the overall
plan for combating contraband. He explained that 10 teams are
taking samples from filling stations and tax warehouses. As he
put it, 38 facilities have been checked, and more than 100
tonnes of undocumented fuel has been found.