Bulgaria interested in Egyptian gas supplies

SOFIA, Bulgaria - The Egyptian oil minister held talks Thursday in Bulgaria about selling up to 1 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year to the EU country, which is trying to cut its dependence on Russian energy imports.

Egypt's Oil Minister Sameh Fahmy said deliveries could begin in 2011-2012, starting at half a billion cubic meters per year.

He and Bulgaria's energy minister, Petar Dimitrov, held a news conference in Sofia after discussing the possible gas sales as well as having Bulgarian companies participate in gas and oil exploration in Egypt.

Dimitrov said Egyptian gas could come to Bulgaria through the existing Turkey-Greece-Italy pipeline if Turkey and Egypt were to link their gas networks.

Such a link, he said, would be "crucial to guarantee Egyptian supplies for the Nabucco gas pipeline project." The Nabucco pipeline will run between Caspian Sea and Austria — crossing Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary — to ease Europe's reliance on Russian energy.

The EU gets about one-third of its oil and about 40 percent of its natural gas from Russia.

No prices were mentioned during Thursday's preliminary talks.

Currently, Bulgaria imports 5.2 billion cubic meters a year — more than 90 percent of its gas supplies — from Russia's state monopoly Gazprom, which sells gas to the EU at more than $500 per 1,000 cubic meter.

Bulgaria has also started talks with Azerbaijan on gas imports.

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