Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov proposed reviving the Nabucco West pipeline project at a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev yesterday. Bulgarian Vice prime Minister Ivailo Kalfin said at a meeting with Constantine Kosachev, the head of Russia's Federation Council Committee on International Relations, that Bulgaria had other sources of gas than Russia.
Vyacheslav Kulagin, the director of the Center for Studies of World Energy Markets at the RAS Institute of Energy Studies, agreed that Nabucco West could become a European section of the Turkish Stream project. He clarified that there were now needed 30 billion cubic meters of gas a year to fill Nabucco. Shah-Deniz-2 would not fully cover the needed volume. Kulagin considers construction of pipeline branches to Bulgaria, Greece and other directions fruitful.
The expert reminded, citing Gazprom, that the company was not planning to expand the pipeline beyond Turkey. Moreover, Russia has no guarantees that the pipeline would be built or Gazprom would get access to it.
Ilham Shaban, the head of the Center of Oil Studies, is steadfast that the statement of the Bulgarian authorities was pointless because Russia prefered to build a pipeline through Greece, Serbia, Macedonia and Hungary. Bulgaria would use the western direction from Turkey through Romania and Bulgaria.
The analyst noted that Boyko Borisov made the statement to put pressure on Russia. Shaban compared it to the assurancesss of the European commissioner for energy about Turkmen gas reaching Europe via the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline made twice every month.
