Bulgaria Gives Name 'Balkan' to Its Gas Hub Project

Bulgaria's government on Thursday announced the gas hub Bulgaria was intending to build near Varna, at the Black Sea, would bear the name "Balkan".

A cabinet statement issued Thursday coincides with a meeting of Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova and Klaus-Dieter Borchardt, Director Internal Energy Market at the European Commission's Directorate-General for Energy.

It also reads that Borchardt and Bulgaria's Deputy PM for economic development, Tomislav Donchev, will head a work group set up last year to study the gas hub project.

The group will work to address challenges facing the regulatory framework and commercial environment to enable an easier connection of Bulgaria to the rest of Southeast Europe.

Borchardt is quoted as saying, on behalf of EU Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete, that Brussels is interested in the development of the gas sector in Southeast Europe to provide supplies to every country in the region.

Bulgaria came up with the gas hub proposal last December, after Russia abandoned the South Stream project which was to carry gas to Central Europe via Bulgaria and Serbia.