Bulgaria-Greece gas interconnector to be completed in June: Bulgarian PM

Bucharest : Visiting Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov has said the gas interconnector between Bulgaria and Greece will be completed by June 30.

“I am convinced that in June the works will be physically completed,” Petkov told a joint press conference with his Romanian counterpart Nicolae Ciuca after their official meeting on Friday.

Ciuca said “we will have gas on this interconnector,” most likely this autumn, following a period of testing and verification after the pipeline, which is expected to break the monopoly of Russian gas on the Bulgarian market, is constructed, Xinhua news agency reported.

“It is important through both quantity, as well as for the possibility of ensuring the traffic of gas from both South-to-North, as well as from North-to-South,” he added.

The Romanian Prime Minister said the interruption of gas supply from Russia is a problem that affects not only Romania and Bulgaria, but other countries in the region and in Europe.

A regional meeting of Energy Ministers has been scheduled for May 5 in Sofia, which will include ministers from Azerbaijan and Turkey, countries that have the potential to secure gas supplies, according to Ciuca.

The Russian gas supplier Gazprom announced earlier on Wednesday that it was fully stopping its gas deliveries to Poland and Bulgaria, due to the two European Union member states’ “failure to pay in rubles”