Nabucco Project
The Nabucco Project is among the importantEuropean energy infrastructure projects for buil dinga transcontinental gas pipeline for natural gas transmissionfrom the Caspian region, theMiddle Eastand North Africa to Central and Western Europe.The great importance of theproject to the EU wasevidenced by the fact that in September 2007, atthe proposal of the EC a special project coordinator was appointed in view of process acceleration.The length of the future gas pipeline will be 3300km, of which nearly 400 km – on Bulgarian territory,and maximal transport capacity – 31 billion cubicmeters of natural gas per annum. The deadline for commissioning the Nabucco gas pipeline is theyear 2013.The shareholders in the company Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH, incorporated in 2004,are the following gas companies: Botas AS - Turkey, Bulgarian Energy Holding EAD – Bulgaria, Transgaz S.A.- Romania, MOL Plc – Hungary, OMV Gas & PowerGmbH – Austria, and as of February 2008 RWE AG- Germany too. Each shareholderholds an equalshare of 16,67% in the company.In 2007 the national Nabucco companies in Austria,Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria were incorporated too.On May 29, 2008, the Steering Committee of the Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH company announced an update of the expected investment expenses, which are currently estimated to EUR 7,9 billion.
The Nabucco gas pipeline will allow diversification of both sources and transmission routes for natural gassupply to Europe and our country. The competitionon the local supply market will be enhanced. Therewill be created a possibility for direct participationof Bulgaria in the single European gas market.
Burgas Aleksandrupolis Project
The Burgas Aleksandrupolis Project is a new routefor transmitting Russian oil from Central Asia andthe Caspian region to Europe, an alternative tothe overloaded traffic through Bosporus and the Dardanelles.The oil will be transported in tankers through theBlack Sea from the Russian port of Novorosiysk to the Bulgarian port of Burgas. The further transmissionof oil will be carried out along a gas pipeline witha length of 280 km, of which 155 km on Bulgarianterritory, to the Greek port of Aleksandrupolis.The governments of Bulgaria, Greece and Russiasigned atripartite agreement for cooperation inthe construction and operation of the oil pipeline,pursuant to which at the beginning of February2008 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Trans BalkanPipeline BV – the national project company,which will be the owner of the oil pipeline, wasincorporated. The share held by Russia in thatcompany is 51%, and Greece and Bulgaria hold a
share of 24.5% each. The share in the company of the Bulgarian partyis held by a joint-stock company registeredin 2007 “Proektna Kompaniya Neftoprovod Burgas - Aleksandrupolis BG”AD, in which equalshares are held by Bulgarian Energy Holding EAD and Technoexportstroy EAD.The expected quantity of oil transited along theoil pipeline is 35 million/tons of oil annually, with apossibility to increase capacity to 50 million/tons.
South Stream Project
The South Stream Project is for building a gaspipeline for transmission of natural gas from Russiato Italy and Austria through the territory of Bulgariaalong the Black Sea bottom, and the project workswere commenced with the Memorandum betweenGazprom and Eni signed in June 2007.At the beginning of 2008, the Russian partysigned bilateral inter-government agreementswith Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and Greece.
Pursuant to the Inter-government agreementsigned in January 2008 between the governmentsof Bulgaria and Russia, the project works onBulgarian territory will be carried out by a jointventure established specially for the project andregistered in Bulgaria, in which the Bulgarianand Russian parties will have equal interest. Theshareholder in the future company on Bulgarianpart will be Bulgarian Energy Holding EAD. It is planned that the annual capacity of the newgas pipeline will be 30 billion cubic meters, andthe planned length of the gas pipeline through theBlack Sea is about 900 km, laid at depth of 2000m. There are two directions of the route of the gaspipeline on the territory of Bulgaria – northern andsouthern.
