Russia and Bulgaria appeared to bo thridge differences over Sofia’s participation in a Moscow-backed pipeline project to bring gas to Europe and plan to sign a final deal in May. Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agreed on a deal for South Stream construction. “We have no disagreements left,” Putin said at a televised news conference with his Bulgarian counterpart. “Our earlier disagreements were purely technical.”
Stanishev held talks with Putin on April 27 during a three-day visit to Moscow. Putin said the pipeline deal could be signed within a couple of weeks while Stanishev confirmed it, saying he hoped the deal could be signed by the middle of May.
The Bulgarian premier later met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who had earlier canceled at the last minute a meeting scheduled for April 27 amid signs that Bulgaria was wavering on South Stream.
Earlier, Putin unexpectedly pulled out of an energy conference in Sofia on April 24-25 because of Bulgarian concerns over the project. A key sticking point has been Bulgaria’s desire for Russian gas monopoly Gazprom to build the pipeline network for South Stream from scratch, while Russia favors the cheaper alternative of using existing gas networks. Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov recently said Russia should stick to an agreement of developing a new network.
However, a final version of the deal due to be signed in May has not clarified whether Russia will build new pipelines through Bulgaria or whether it will get to use Bulgaria’s existing pipelines, according to Reuters. “The important thing is that we got them to agree to participate in South Stream,” Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said. “The rest will be worked out at the company level,” he added, referring to further talks between Gazprom and Bulgaria’s national energy company.
Bulgaria is also seeking firm guarantees that South Stream would ensure more stable supplies than those provided by the existing route. Bulgaria was the EU country worst hit by a two-week disruption of Russian gas supplies via Ukraine in January. South Stream is a proposed gas pipeline that will run under the Black Sea from Russia’s Novorossiysk to the Bulgarian port of Varna.
The total length of the offshore section will be about 900 kilometres, its maximum depth will be more than two kilometres, and the pipeline is planned to carry 30 billion cubic metres of gas annually. Two possible onshore routes from Bulgaria, one to the northwest and the other to the southwest, are being considered. Bulgaria is also part of the Nabucco consortium and, because it has options, appears to be in no mood to give much away.
“The Bulgarian PM is pushing a hard bargain with Moscow and with elections now scheduled for July 5th he cannot be seen to give an easy deal to Moscow,” Chris Weafer, chief strategist at Moscow’s Uralsib bank, wrote in an e-mailed note to investors. “In fact, unless a deal is wrapped up quickly, the issue of gas transit risks becoming an issue in the July parliamentary elections and a very decisive issue between the pro EU and pro Russia factions. But, in a hopeful note, PM Putin said that he hopes that a deal can be signed between the two sides within two weeks.”