Earlier this week, Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova joined a symbolic event – the ceremony of placing the first pipe in the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) in Selim, Turkey. The significance of the event shows in senior attendance including the presidents of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia, European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic and of course TANAP Managing Board President Rovnag Abdullaev.

During the ceremony Minister Petkova said that Bulgaria’s gas connections with Greece and Turkey were an integral part of the Southern Gas Corridor infrastructure. They are going to provide for security and diversification of natural gas supplies and sources for both Bulgaria and the region of South-East Europe. For the Bulgarian government completion of inter-connectors with neighboring countries is a priority in the energy sector. As an example of that Petkova pointed to continuing busy talks of the joint Bulgaria-Turkey working group for drafting a pre-investment study of the Turkey-Bulgaria gas connector.

During her visit to Selim Minister Petkova met with EC Vice President Maros Sefcovic who confirmed the Commission’s support for construction of the Bulgaria-Greece inter-connector as an important part of the Southern Corridor. Petkova gave assurances to Sefcovic that the Bulgarian side had worked out a detailed roadmap with activities and deadlines. Under it the gas pipeline should be completed by 2018. For the current year the cabinet has envisaged a government guarantee worth 80 million euro, a further expression of this country’s efforts for a speedier construction of the inter-connector. By the way, at the European Union Council held in Brussels two days later, PM Borissov urged Europe to support financially this project.

In conclusion let us recall that the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline with a length of 1850 km is planned to go across Turkey’s territory from the Georgian-Turkish and Turkish-Greek borders and construction should complete in 2018. It should then become operational with an initial capacity of 16 billion cubic meters. Of that quantity 10 billion cubic meters will reach Italy via the Trans-Adriatic pipeline. The quantity includes 1 billion cubic meters annually that should be supplied to Bulgaria.

English Daniela Konstantinova