site.btaBulgarian Research Ship Arrives in Comodoro Rivadavia

Bulgaria's naval research ship Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421) arrived and docked at the port of Antonio Moran in the Argentinian city of Comodoro Rivadavia on Monday, one day ahead of schedule. The ship departed from Antarctica on February 17.

The Bulgarian community in the city will officially welcome the crew on Tuesday. An exhibition entitled Yesterday and Today will present historical and contemporary photographs. Musical and dance ensembles with a special guest appearance by Viento Sureno and Javier Maza will welcome the expedition.

Comodoro Rivadavia is the largest city of Chubut Province, located on the San Jorge Gulf. Its population is around 180,000 people, out of which around 2,000 are Bulgarian descendants. The Cyril and Methodius Bulgarian Society, established in the city in 1989, aims to bring together descendants of Bulgarian immigrants who came to the city in the 1930s.

After oil was discovered in the area in 1907, many immigrants, including Bulgarians, arrived in Comodoro Rivadavia to work in the oil fields and in the refinery built in 1922. Later, a 1,770-kilometre gas pipeline was built to the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires.

The Bulgarian naval research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421) departed for Antarctica from Varna, on the Black Sea, on November 7, 2025. After a month-long voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, the ship arrived at the Argentine naval base in Mar del Plata on December 13.

BTA has had a national press club on board the ship since 2022 and another on Livingston Island since February 2024. These are added to the news agency’s other 41 national press clubs (33 in Bulgaria, seven abroad in neighbouring countries and in nations with large Bulgarian communities, and one mobile National Book Press Club). BTA's Director General Kiril Valchev announced ahead of the fourth voyage to Antarctica on November 7, 2025, that the national news agency would send a special correspondent in January-February 2026.

He said the press clubs exist thanks to the generous support of RSV 421 and Bulgaria’s St Kliment Ohridski Base, which provide the necessary facilities.

The news items of BTA's special correspondents on RSV 421 and Antarctica are freely available in Bulgarian and English on the agency's website. They can be used free of charge by all media, with attribution to BTA. Valchev recalled that thanks to its correspondents, the news agency appears among the top results on Google when searching for the phrase "Antarctica correspondent".