ECONOMY

Bulgaria seeks to revive plans for Nabucco pipeline

Bulgaria wants the European Commission to revive plans for the Nabucco pipeline that would pump gas from the Caspian Sea, after a Russian project seen as a rival was scrapped, Prime Minister Boiko Borisov said on Wednesday.

Sofia was caught off guard by President Vladimir Putin’s surprise announcement in December to abandon plans for the South Stream pipeline that would have supplied gas to Europe via Bulgaria, while bypassing Ukraine.

The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), a rival project to Nabucco that will bring Azeri gas to Italy via Greece, is still under consideration.

“We want to unfreeze the Nabucco project through Bulgaria,” Borisov told reporters after meeting Azeri President Ilham Aliyev in Sofia.

“It is not aimed against anyone, this is about preserving Bulgaria’s national interest,” Borisov said.

Speaking alongside Borisov, President Aliyev said Bulgaria could build an interconnector with Greece to draw gas from the TAP route, which could then be sent on to Romania and Hungary.

[Reuters]

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