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Bulgaria, Greece, Italy sign agreement on gas interconnector

30 November 2010 18:19 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Bulgaria, Greece and Italy signed here on Tuesday a shareholders agreement on establishing a joint company aimed at building the first gas interconnector between the two Balkan countries, APA reports quoting Xinhua News Agency.

"This was the final step before beginning the construction of this pipeline," Bulgarian Energy Minister Traicho Traikov said after the signing ceremony. This 170-km-long pipeline will extend from Komotini in northern Greece to Stara Zagora of Bulgaria. It will give an opportunity to supply three to five billion cubic meters of gas a year from the Southern gas corridor to Bulgaria and the countries in the region. The pipeline is due to come into operation in 2013.

Bulgaria relies on Russia for 96 percent of its gas needs, and makes desperate efforts to escape from this energy dependence. Earlier on Tuesday the Balkan country developed with Romania a " road map" for building a gas interconnector between them.

Bulgaria is one of the strongest supporters of the Nabucco gas pipeline that has to deliver 31 billion cubic meters of Caspian- region gas each year from Turkey, via Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, to Austria, bypassing Russia.