24.07.2023
Bulgaria wants to partake of the concessions to the Greek ports in Kavala and Alexandroupolis. That was one of the items on the agenda discussed during today’s visit of Prime Minister Acad. Nikolai Denkov to Greece. He met there his counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The plenary talks were attended by cabinet ministers from both countries.
A 20% concession share of the Kavala Port is the stated interest. The concessionaire companies there that will soon sign a contract with Greece have already agreed to add a Bulgarian partner, which most likely will be a state-owned company. The concession to the Alexandroupolis Port is currently frozen. When the procedure is reopened, Bulgaria will have the opportunity to express its interest, the Prime Minister said after he returned from Athens.
Bulgaria and Greece are strategic partners in the North-South energy and transport corridors. “When last year Gazprom cut off the gas supplies to Bulgaria, Greece played a key role to ensure that we supply nonstop our industries and households. Intensive work is underway to increase the amounts of the gas supply by the installation of additional compressor stations. Thus in addition to the supplies that it gets, Bulgaria is able to transport gas to neighbor countries to the north and west,” Acad. Denkov explained.
The Alexandroupolis-Bourgas oil pipeline was another item on the agenda of the meeting in Athens today. The pipeline will become immeasurably important for the feedstock for the Bourgas Petrochemical Works after the end of the derogation of refining Russian oil. The Greek interest is to complete the oil pipeline by the end of 2024; therefore, today’s discussion was about possible routes and practical steps to implement the project.
Greece expressed interest in two energy projects in Bulgaria: the expansion of the underground gas storage (UGS) facility in Chiren and the addition of two new reactors at the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant. Our neighbors want to reserve part of the capacity in Chiren and to pay for additional gas amounts that they may use. The Greek side is willing to contribute to the construction of new reactors at the Kozloduy NPP either as an investor or as a customer with a long-term contract for the purchase of electricity.
Greece has already started developing railway routes that are of special interest to Bulgaria – to Koulata and to Svilengrad. The operational upgrading of the railway infrastructure that serves these two destinations will give an opportunity to increase the cargo traffic from Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine and Moldova to the Greek ports.
Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis thanked his counterpart Acad. Denkov for Bulgaria’s support to his country to put out the wildfires.
It is for a second year in a row that Bulgaria participates in the European Commission’s initiative for prepositioned modules to put out wildfires. At this very moment, 70 Bulgarian firefighters with eight fire engines and three vehicles to manage the men and equipment are operating in the field. They are positioned at Thessaloniki Airport.
Members of the Bulgarian delegation in Athens were: Assen Vassilev, Minister of Finance; Julian Popov, Minister of Environment and Water; Georgi Gvozdeykov, Minister of Transport and Communications; Rumen Radev, Minister of Energy.
