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Gas from Azerbaijan may cover 30% of Bulgaria's demand by 2020

The Bulgarian Ministry of Energy forecasts that gas imports from Azerbaijan will cover approximately 30% of its gas consumption beyond 2020 and thus help reduce its almost entire dependence on Russian gas imports, which currently cover more than 90% of the country's gas needs.



So far, Bulgarian state-run gas utility Bulgargaz has signed a long-term contract for 25 years with Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR for supplying 1 bcm/year of natural gas from Shah Deniz Phase 2 project in the Caspian Sea offshore Azerbaijan. The gas could be imported via the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) gas interconnection pipeline, which is expected to become operational by the end of 2020.



The Shah Deniz gas field is one of the largest gas fields in the world and is the starting point of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) series of pipelines that will transport natural gas from the Caspian Sea straight to European markets. Operated by BP, the expansion project is expected to add 16 bcm/year of gas production as of 2019-2020 to the first phase that currently produces about 10 bcm/year. Up to 10 bcm/year will be exported to western Europe through the Southern Gas Corridor (via Georgia and Turkey on to Greece, Albania, and Italy) and 6 bcm/year will be shipped to Turkey via the new South Caucasus pipeline expansion.