For quite some time now, since the fiasco of the South Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Bulgaria in 2014, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov has been dreaming to see Bulgaria playing a more substantial role on the European gas market. This is despite the fact that this country has no gas deposits, its location is at Europe’s end, and it is far away from the continent’s major gas transiting routes. Today the Bulgarian authorities look very keen on the so-called “Balkan” gas hub on the Black Sea coast meant to emerge as a key center for selling gas to the region’s countries and even to Central European states. There is no construction plan yet for the huge, sophisticated and costly facility; however the efforts to make it happen have not stopped.

Recently Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova was in St. Petersburg where she signed with the CEO of giant Gazprom Alexei Miller a roadmap for the expansion of Bulgaria’s gas transiting network. In an official release about the talks however no information could be found about the project though it is obvious that a possible expansion of the country’s gas transiting network cannot be justified by anything other than the cherished Black Sea hub.

Recently, PM Borissov made clear that Bulgaria counts on new direct supplies of Russian gas along something not unlike South Stream 2. This is not possible without a new gas pipeline. And a new Russian gas pipeline is under construction in Turkey – Turkish Stream. For the time being it is planned to have a single pipe with a capacity of 15.7 billion cubic meters of gas annually aimed to be used exclusively for the needs of the Turkish economy.

The truth however looks a bit different after Bulgarian PM Boyko Borissov made a public announcement that he expected an approval from Brussels for a second pipe with the same capacity aimed to reach Bulgaria. Even before there has been a confirmation it has become known that the Russian gas giant Gazprom had already started installing a second, “Bulgarian” pipe side by side the first pipe of Turkish Stream. This suggests that the Bulgarian Energy Minister’s talks in St. Petersburg included much bigger plans than the mere expansion this country’s gas system expansion. All those maneuvers accompanying the Bulgarian gas appetites have been complemented by the memorandum signed for the construction of the so-called vertical gas corridor connection of Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Hungary. It will be responsible for carrying gas from and to Bulgaria and has already fueled further optimism regarding the “Balkan” gas hub project.

All these developments clearly suggest that Bulgaria takes practical measures aimed at a more strategic place on Europe’s gas market. This pertains to long-term projects that will take years and will cost billions of euros. Parallel to practical measures for the implementation of plans however there has been criticism and questions arising as to what extent these ideas could be effective and profitable for Bulgaria. In fact these questions were among the key reasons that led to the fiasco of South Stream after its possible economic value for Bulgaria was not clearly formulated. The same is valid even to a greater extent where the expansion of the internal gas transiting system, the construction of connections with the gas systems with neighbor countries and the “Balkan” gas hub project are concerned. Work on these projects though is in full swing – though there is no proof of their effectiveness. Therefore it won’t be surprising if after preparing detailed plans for the said projects they turn out not profitable enough. In such a case they will either be frozen for better times to come, or given up altogether. In any case we are now seeing brisk activity of Bulgarian authorities energy-wise that has yielded some practical results. The gas dreams of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov are getting more definite by the day.

English Daniela Konstantinova