Turkey has granted Bulgaria access to its liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals, opening up a tightly controlled corner of the European gas market that could help diversify supplies in the region, Bloomberg reported, citing Rador.

According to the agreement signed on Tuesday in Sofia, Bulgaria’s state-owned company Bulgargaz EAD will be able to import LNG from Turkey’s terminals and network for 13 years. Bulgaria will be able to use the total capacity of about 1.5 billion cubic meters per year, Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Donmez told the press. At full load, this capacity is about half of Bulgaria’s domestic demand.

The deal opens up a welcome new supply route to Southeast Europe after Russia cut off supplies to the continent following its invasion of Ukraine. Until now, Bulgaria’s shortest route to access LNG was through Greece, where buyers must compete for supplies under EU rules.

Turkey, which is outside the EU but is connected to it by a gas pipeline, is not subject to these rules and has free capacity.

“Thanks to this agreement, we can now buy gas from producers all over the world,” Bulgarian Energy Minister Rosen Hristov told the media. “This decision is not only of national and regional importance, but also important for Europe.”

As Western Europe rushes to build infrastructure to replace Russian gas, Turkey used less than half of the 21.9 million tons of capacity from its four LNG terminals last year, according to Bloomberg data. The fifth terminal will be commissioned this month.

Ambitions of the distribution center

Turkey plans to create a “global hub” for gas in Thrace, its region on the border with Bulgaria.

In addition to LNG, Turkey is investing in new storage facilities and is in talks with Russia and Turkmenistan about new supplies that could go through it to Europe. There are also potential obstacles, including the cost of the pipelines, which could run into billions of dollars, and geopolitical friction between the EU and Russia.

Turkey moved a step closer to its goal in December when Romania agreed to import Azerbaijani gas through Turkey. Bulgaria now receives a third of its annual consumption from Azerbaijan on the basis of a long-term contract.

Photo: Dreamtime