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Bulgaria and Russian energy giant Gazprom on Monday agreed on technical aspects of the Bulgarian stretch of the South Stream gas pipeline, and construction is expected to begin 2013, news agency BTA reported.
Gazprom vice-president Alexander Medvedev, who signed a protocol Monday on the technical specifications, said construction in Bulgaria would begin next year.
The state-owned Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) and Gazprom had set up in November 2010 a 50-50 joint venture to plan, build and operate the Bulgarian stretch of the 3,600-kilometre (2,200-mile) South Stream pipeline.
The link, due to pass under the Black Sea, will carry an annual 63 billion cubic metres of Russian gas to Europe, bypassing row-prone Ukraine. It is due to be fully operational in 2018.
Meanwhile, Bulgarian Minister for Economy and Energy Deyan Dobrev announced that Sofia had also signed a deal in which Bulgaria would get an 11 percent discount on Russian gas from April to December 2012.
Bulgaria, which is almost totally dependent on Russian natural gas deliveries via Ukraine, has backed both South Stream and the EU’s lagging Nabucco pipeline project as possible ways to diversify its supplies.