Russia and Bulgaria signed the South Stream agreement

(Vladimir Putin and Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov)

Russia and Bulgaria signed an agreement on November 13 in Sofia on the formation of a joint venture for construction of the South Stream gas pipeline.

The agreement between Russian Gazprom and the Bulgarian power company was signed, during the visit of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to Sofia, by Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and Executive Director of the Bulgarian company Maja Hristova, Itar-Tass reported.

At the press conference held by Putin and his Bulgarian counterpart Boyko Borisov after the talks, the Russian PM said that Bulgaria would be receiving nearly 2.5 billion euros every year.

- Bulgaria gets about 600 million euros from Russia for the transit of a small quantity of Russian gas to other countries. If we implement the South Stream gas project, Bulgaria will be receiving nearly 2.5 billion euros a year only for hosting the gas pipeline on its territory - said Putin.

Putin added that Borisov and he had agreed during the talks "to start from a standstill" the construction of joint nuclear power plant Belene. - We agreed to start the implementation of the technical project by end of the year - said Putin.

The agreement on inclusion of Bulgaria in the South Stream gas project was concluded in June 2007. The relations between Russia and Bulgaria in the energy sector have worsened significantly upon the arrival of the new government in Sofia in August 2009.

The Bulgarian government has, practically, frozen the Burgas-Aleksandropulos gas pipeline construction project, the participants in which are Transneft, Rosneft and Gazpromneft, and it has also expressed a doubt in expediency of the construction of the Belene nuclear power plant, which is supposed to be built by Atomstrojeksport.

The agreement on the construction of the Belene power plant was signed in 1984, but it was frozen in 1991 due to economic and political changes in Bulgaria. The Government of Bulgaria made the decision in 2004 to renegotiate on implementation of that project.