South Stream in Bulgaria Runs Five Months Late, Deputy Energy Minister Informs

The Romania-Bulgaria gas interconnector is the most advanced of all projected Bulgarian gas interconnections and should start operating in January 2014

The work on South Stream has been delayed with five-six months due to talks on the financial model of the project, Bulgaria’s deputy energy minister Ivan Aiolov stated during a forum on Oct. 8.

“Bulgaria is defending its interest. Nevertheless the financial model of South Stream will not be changed, we are re-negotiating its parameters”, Aiolov said, as quoted by BNR.

The Bulgarian government has been considering the re-negotiation of the interest rate of the planned loan that the state-owned Bulgarian Energy Holding will obtain from Gazprom for the construction of the pipeline on Bulgarian territory.

Deputy-minister Aiolov further informed that the Romania-Bulgaria gas interconnector is the most advanced such project. It is expected that the gas connection with Bulgaria’s northern neighbor becomes operational as of Jan. 1 2014.

A tender for the engineering of the interconnector with Serbia, planned to start operations in 2017, will be organised by end-October.

The planned gas network connection with Turkey is the least developed, currently being at a planning stage, Ailov stated.

This article by Lyudmila Zlateva originally appeared on Publics.bg, a Natural Gas Europe Media Partner