Bulgaria will not renew the current contract for the purchase of Russian gas, which expires in July 2022.

This was stated in an interview with the Bulgarian National Radio by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Asen Vasilev, European Truth reports .

According to him, instead of a new agreement with Russia, Bulgaria will look for alternative sources of gas and hope for a single contract for EU countries.

“There are alternatives – the old Trans-Balkan pipes. We have a capacity of about 20 billion cubic meters, which can be used in both directions, while we need 3 billion cubic meters. They can be taken from Qatar or Algeria – this is a pan-European strategy,” he said. Prime Minister.

The Bulgarian government also plans to use the existing infrastructure of Greece and Turkey to purchase liquefied natural gas and increase imports from Azerbaijan, which already exports gas to the country.

According to Vasilev, the issue of joint gas purchases will be considered “in the next one or two weeks.”

“At the European level, they will discuss the creation of a common gas agreement for the entire EU. We expect this mechanism to work in the summer,” he said.

Earlier, Poland confirmed its intention to completely abandon Russian gas. Following the expiration of the current contract for the purchase of gas through the Yamal gas pipeline in December, Poland will stop buying gas from Russia. 

(C)CENSOR.NET 2022