President Rosen Plevneliev: It's final: Bulgaria will sign on South Stream on November 15
The final investment decision on the South Stream gas pipeline will be signed on Thursday, President Rosen Plevneliev said after a meeting with Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism Delian Dobrev on Monday. The Minister gave the President a report on the South Stream project. Plevneliev said he will examine the report and stressed that an approach to transparency is important.
Our country will have to invest about €500 mln in the South Stream project, Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism Delian Dobrev stated in an interview for Nova TV about the investment decision our country has to sign for the construction of the gas pipeline.
Dobrev reminded that the company South Stream Bulgaria was created in 2010 and its shareholders include the Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) and Gazprom. They have equal stakes in it. At the signing of the agreement, it was agreed that the pipe will be financed by 70% attracted funding and 30% own funding.
According to estimates of engineers working on the gas project, the pipe will cost about €3.3 bn. Since Russia and Bulgaria have equal shares in South Stream Bulgaria, roughly estimated, our country will have to invest about €500 mln in the project.
Dobrev said, however, that our country lacks the necessary resources to make the investment. The Economy Minister reminded that the term of exploitation of the pipe is 25 years and the life cycle is 40 years. Regarding the new parameters of the project, he stated that there will only be a change in the technical requirements for the pipe.
Source: klassa.bg