Bulgaria Seeks to Build Gas Hub for Europe

Bulgaria wants to build a gas storage and distribution facility which could help the Balkan country diversify supplies and become a regional hub following the suspension of the South Stream pipeline project.

Last week, Russia scrapped the South Stream project to supply gas to southern Europe without crossing Ukraine, citing EU objections, and instead named Turkey as its preferred partner for an alternative pipeline.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country was ready to build a gas hub at the border between Turkey and Greece to pump gas to Southern Europe.

But Bulgaria has proposed that the facility be built instead near the city of Varna - where the South Stream pipes were supposed to come out of the Black Sea - and has said it would cooperate with Russia to build a pipe to the Bulgarian coast.

"The proposed hub could rely on Russian gas ... as well as the potential deposits of Bulgarian natural gas in the Black Sea," the Bulgarian government said in a statement on Friday after sending a formal proposal to the European commission.

The storage facility would also rely on supplies from neighbouring Turkey, Greece and Romania, with gas transported to European countries that had been participating in the South Stream project.

Earlier this week, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov said the EU could pay for the construction of the storage facility in his country.

"The European Commission pays for the hub, we construct a distribution centre for the energy union in Varna, and become number one in terms of diversification," he said.

"It is in our interests and in the interests of the European Union, and we must solve this problem. We offer the European Commission and the entire Europe a perfect option of placing a gas hub in Bulgaria, not in Turkey."

The South Stream project was meant to supply 67 billion cubic metres of gas a year to Europe.

Reporting by Angel Krasimirov