Bulgarian Ministry of the Environment starts EIA procedure about the Nabucco pipeline. Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliyev stops Southstream Russian pipeline realization in Bulgaria because of the lack of clarity in contracts.
Bulgarian energetic policy looks more European than Russian. On Thursday 11/8, Bulgarian Ministry of the Environment started the Environmental Impacting Assessment procedure about Nabucco Pipeline.
According to Natural Gas Europe, Nabucco Managing Director Reinhard Mitschek explained the Nabucco Pipeline is important to differ EU gas supplies by carrying gas in Europe directly from Azerbaijan.
Moreover, Bulgarian Nabucco Managing Director Marii Kossev sentenced the pipeline will help to defeat European economic crisis creating new job opportunities in Bulgaria and in all the other Nabucco's transit-states.
On the one hand, Bulgaria showed a green light to Europe by supporting Nabucco pipeline. On the other hand, Sofia stopped the Southstream realization, supported by Russia in order to maintain Moscow hegemony in European gas market.
According to PAP agency, Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliyev questioned to Russia the absence of clear contractual points about gas supplies and realization's costs.
As wnp info portal reported, Bulgaria buys right now 470 USD per bcm of Russian gas. Moreover, the Southstream realization will cost around 3,3 milliards of Euro.
The Nabucco is a 3893 length pipeline planed to carry 30 bcm of Azeri gas directly to Europe via Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria.
The Nabucco pipeline is politically supported by the European Commission, the Vysehrad Group countries - Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia - and the Governments of Bulgaria, Austria, Turkey and Romania.
Nabucco's shareholders are Austrian company OMV, Hungarian MOL, Romanian Transgaz, Bulgarian Bulgargaz and German RWE.
The Southstream is a 3600 length pipeline planed to deliver Russian gas to Austria via the Black Sea seabed, the Bulgarian port of Varna, Greece, Montenegro, FYROM, Serbia, Hungary, Slovenia and Italy.
The Southstream - known also as the Orthodox Pipeline - is politically supported by Russia and those EU countries, as Germany, France and the Netherlands, which prefer to reach national goals instead of supporting the common European energetic policy the European Commission established to ensure Europe's energetic security.
Southstream's shareholders are Russian national major Gazprom, Italian concern ENI, German company Wintershall, French company EDF, and the national energetic company of Serbia, Slovenia, Montenegro and Macedonia.
The real Southstream's realization political goal is the will Russia has to stop the European Commission plan of gas supplies's diversification by carrying natural gas directly from Azerbaijan.
Russia uses energetic and gas national resources in order to reach political goals, as the hegemony in European gas market and the endangerment of the European energetic security.
Matteo Cazzulani
