PM Boyko Borissov to Financial Times: South Stream is a more promising pipeline than Nabucco

Bulgaria’s PM Boyko Borissov defended his country’s agreement with Russia to build the controversial €16 bn South Stream gas pipeline across his country, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

According to PM Borissov, the project has better prospects than the Brussels-backed rival plan for the Nabucco gas conduit and will benefit Europe, read an article by the UK newspaper’s reporters in Sofia, Neil Buckley and Tony Barber, posted the Internet site of the Financial Times, reported BTA.

PM Borissov stated that no state money would go into the Bulgarian sector of the pipeline.

“The project will create jobs in Bulgaria and the next government will collect transit fees on gas transported through the pipeline and will be able to pay higher pensions and build museums and sports stadiums," Bulgaria’s Prime Minister told the FT.

PM Borissov denied media reports that Bulgaria would take no transit fees from South Stream for up to 15 years in order to pay for its share of the construction of the Bulgarian section. He expressed his surprise at questions on whether the project would be viable given flagging gas demand growth and proliferating supply sources following the shale gas boom in North America.

Such questions, he said, might instead apply to Nabucco – the EU-backed project to bring gas from the Caspian basin via the Caucasus, which PM Borissov said had been Bulgaria’s “top priority”.

“Tens of millions of Euros have been spent on Nabucco so far just to administer it and, still, we don’t know the source of gas for the pipeline,” added PM Borissov.

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