The Russian president`s visit to Bulgaria this week will bring a package of deals, including on an ambitious oil pipeline project and a nuclear power plant, the foreign minister said on Monday.
"As to documents [to be signed], I would highlight an agreement to set up a company to oversee the construction of the Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline, which would involve the two countries and Greece, and a contract to build the Belene NPP," Sergei Lavrov said.
On March 15, 2007, Russia, Bulgaria, and Greece signed a deal on a pipeline to carry Russian oil via the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Burgas and Greece`s Alexandroupolis on the Aegean, as an alternative route to bypass the congested Bosporus.
Once completed, the pipeline will pump 35 million metric tons of oil a year (257.25 million bbl), a volume that could eventually be increased to 50 million metric tons (367.5 million bbl).
Russia was reported to have a 51% stake in the company.
The Russian-Bulgarian agreement on a nuclear power plant in the town of Belene on the bank of the Danube has been approved by the European Union. Russia`s state-owned nuclear equipment monopoly, Atomstroyexport, which won a tender in 2006, is to build two reactors at the Balkan state`s second nuclear power plant. The cost of the project is estimated at around 4 billion euros (around $6 billion).
Lavrov said Russia and Bulgaria would also sign a deal to build a railroad ferry linking Russia`s Kavkaz port in the Kerch Strait, which links the Black and Azov seas, to Bulgaria`s Varna port in order to facilitate cargo movement.
He said more agreements could be signed during Vladimir Putin`s visit to the country, which would also be timed to coincide with celebrations of the 130th anniversary of the liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman rule by a force led by Russia`s Tsar Alexander II. Bulgarians referred the Alexander II as the Tsar Liberator. Putin will also attend a ceremony to open the cultural program of `Russian Year in Bulgaria`.
Russia`s energy deals with Bulgaria and other south European states - including a natural gas pipeline South Stream to be build under the Black Sea to supply 30 billion cubic meters of gas to the EU annually - have triggered concern in Europe about its growing energy dependence on Moscow.
Russian News
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