Sofia and Shell discussing transit gas pipeline
Apr. 6, 1998 The Bulgarian government and Shell are considering the possibility of signing a bilateral memorandum on
co-operation.
They are planning to pool efforts in designing and building the stretch of the trunk gas pipeline, via which
Turkmenian gas is to be pumped to Germany via Iran, Turkey, and Bulgaria.
A corresponding agreement was reached in principle by Shell's Assistant Director Towsen, who is in charge of the
Central and Eastern European region, and Bulgarian Vice-Premier Yevgeny Bakyrjiev.
Judging by Bakyrjiev's statement, the oil-handling capacity of the Bulgarian stretch of the gas pipeline will be
twice larger than that of the present pipeline, via which Bulgaria annually gets for its needs some 6 billion cubic
metres of Russian gas. It is also used for the transit delivery of about 6.7 bn cm of gas to Turkey, Greece, and
Macedonia.
The talks will be continued at Sofia in mid-April.
