site.btaBulgarian Energy Minister Petkova Holds Discussions with Two Turkmenistan Deputy PMs on Opportunities for Natural Gas Delivery to Bulgaria

Bulgarian Energy Minister Petkova Holds Discussions with Two Turkmenistan Deputy PMs on Opportunities for Natural Gas Delivery to Bulgaria

Ashgabat/Sofia, December 24 (BTA) - The Bulgarian Energy Ministry is to draw up a memorandum of mutual understanding in respect of cooperation in energy to underpin negotiations on deliveries of natural gas from Turkmenistan to Bulgaria in the availability of technical viability and built infrastructure. An agreement to this effect was reached by Bulgarian Energy Minister Temenouzhka Petkova who met on Wednesday with Turkmenistan Deputy Prime Minister for the Oil and Gas Industry Yagshygeldi Kakayev and with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov, the Bulgarian Energy Ministry said in a press release.

The talks were also attended by Bulgarian Ambassador in Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan Maya Hristova, Turkmenistan's Minister of Oil and Gas Industry and Mineral Resources Muhammetnur Khalilov, the Turkmengas CEO, and other officials.

Bulgaria is to prepare the intergovernmental document which will broaden the existing memorandum of understanding on cooperation in energy between the two countries signed on December 19, 2008. The new document will negotiate concrete quantities of Turkmenistan natural gas for Bulgaria, says the press release.

"Turkmenistan plays an important role for the energy security of not just Bulgaria but also of the entire EU in the context of the possibility for diversifying sources and routes of natural gas supplies for Europe," Petkova said. She also noted the active work of the Bulgarian government in this respect, by means of construction of gas interconnectors with the neighbouring countries.

Earlier on Wednesday Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov inaugurated the East-West Pipeline which will carry natural gas from gas fields in the east of the country to the coast of the Caspian Sea. The pipeline mostly follows already existing routes and creates a system of interconnection among all major natural gas fields in Turkmenistan. The length of the pipeline is 773 kilometres and its capacity is 30 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year.

The press release of the Bulgarian Energy Ministry says that the project has a key importance for Europe's energy security, providing access to EU countries to one more source of natural gas along the route of the Southern Gas Corridor.