Iran put forward a revival of Nabucco project during recent talks with
Bulgaria's Prime Minister and other officials, the country's Ambassador
to Sofia has said.
Asked by Novinite to confirm reports that emerged earlier this week of a
meeting between him and PM Boyko Borisov, H.E. Abdollah Norouzi has
explained that a renewal of the now abandoned pipeline project was among
the issues he touched during the conversation, "having in mind the
idea... about the creation of a gas hub in Bulgaria".
Mr Norouzi, however, stops short of discussing any specific offer of
assistance in building the hub, unlike in the story run by the Mehr News
Agency this week.
According to him, Borisov was accompanied by a Deputy PM (previous
reports cited the name of Tomislav Donchev, who oversees economic policy
and EU funding), Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov, and Energy Minister
Temenuzhka Petkova. Government officials have not yet commented on the
reports.
In the Ambassador's words, "one of the means of diversification of gas
supplies [in Europe] is the use of the Nabucco gas pipeline with the
partnership of the Islamic Republic of Iran".
Mr Norouzi has argued that if Nabucco is renewed and linked to Iran,
its envisaged capacity from 12 billion cubic meters to 70 bcm on a
yearly basis(HBCB)
