Report: Russia, Bulgaria resume South Stream negotiations

MOSCOW, Jan 11 (PRIME) -- Russia and Bulgaria are again holding negotiations on the South Stream pipeline project, which Russia cancelled in December 2014 because of a protest against it by European authorities, Bulgarian newspaper Standart reported Monday, citing Prime Minister Boyko Borisov.

Later in the day, a spokesman for the council of Bulgarian ministers told PRIME that the country cannot confirm the fact of South Stream negotiations. “We do not have any information about that,” the spokesman said.

Sources cited by the newspaper said that the new South Stream project will be in line with the E.U. third energy package rules, and that an idea to build a gas distribution center near Varna has already been approved in Brussels, so there are good chances that this time, South Stream will succeed.

Russia earlier decided to construct Turkish Stream, a pipeline that could run to the Turkey–Greece border to replace the South Stream pipeline, which was supposed to carry Russian natural gas to Europe bypassing Ukraine. But disagreements over the Turkish Stream scale and gas price with Ankara, and also the recent downing of a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 plane by Turkish military forces have put the project fulfillment in danger.

According to the newspaper, Borisov was very glad about the South Stream revival and said last week: "Now all will see if Erdogan is good and Boyko - bad!"

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