Bulgaria may cut its gas imports from Russia to 500,000 cubic meters from the current 2 bcm in the next two to three years, Kommersant business daily said on Thursday quoting Bulgarian Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism Traycho Traikov.
Bulgaria, whose annual gas needs amount to 2.5 bcm, is following Croatia's suit, which stopped buying gas produced by Russia's export monopoly Gazprom from this year preferring the blue fuel sold by Italy's ENI.
Traikov said local production, including from shale gas and gas purchases from other countries, including Azerbaijan, would help Bulgaria decrease the share of Russian gas in its energy balance and abandon long-term contracts preferred by Gazprom. Long-term deals usually mean higher prices than those on the spot market.
In a year or two Bulgaria hopes to start producing 1 bcm of gas from a local deposit which has estimated reserves of 10 bcm. Traikov also said that the country's shale gas reserves would run for 300 years.
Bulgaria also pins hopes on the Nabucco pipeline project, which is part of the EU effort to diversify natural gas supplies and reduce the region's dependence on Russian gas.
Bulgaria is participating in the South Stream pipeline project, designed to deliver Central Asian and Russian natural gas under the Black Sea to Europe and is generally regarded as a rival to the West-backed Nabucco pipeline.
