Vertical gas corridor to go ahead linking Bulgaria to Romania, Greece – and Azerbaijan

Vertical Gas Corridor: Bulgaria yesterday signed an agreement with Romania and Greece to build a link between the countries’ natural gas grids. In a development that will reduce Bulgaria’s dependency on Russia for its energy supplies, the new €220m ‘vertical gas corridor’ will enable Bulgaria to buy gas from Azerbaijan and Greece’s LNG terminals. Bulgaria consumes around 3bn m³ of gas each year, 95% of which it currently buys from Gazprom. The new pipeline is expected to be able to supply that amount and more.
Bulgaria is meanwhile  seeking to ramp up its own production of natural gas and last week launched an invitation to tender for deep water gas and oil exploration off its Black Sea coastline. Its government has previously held talks with (among others) Royal Dutch Shell,BP, and Statoil ASA about the exploration of the country’s  Teres and Silistar oil and gas blocks.