site.btaBulgaria Wants to Participate in Concessions of Kavala, Alexandroupolis Ports

Bulgaria wants to join the concessions of the Greek ports of Kavala and Alexandroupolis, the Bulgarian government said on Monday. This topic was among those discussed during Monday's visit of Prime Minister Denkov to Greece, where he met with his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Plenary talks were also held with the participation of ministers from both countries. 

The interest in Kavala is about 20%, Denkov said upon his return. "The concessionaire companies there, which will soon sign a contract with Greece, have already agreed to add a Bulgarian partner, which in all likelihood will be a state-owned company", he added, stating that the concession for Alexandroupolis port is currently suspended. "When it is announced again, Bulgaria will have the opportunity to declare its interest", Denkov said.

Bulgaria and Greece are strategic partners on the North-South energy and transport corridors. "When Gazprom stopped gas supplies to Bulgaria last year, Greece played a key role in enabling us to supply our economy and domestic consumers without interruption. We are currently working hard to increase the gas supply by installing additional compressor stations. This allows not only Bulgaria to be supplied, but also gas to be transported to neighbouring countries to the north and west of us," Denkov clarified.

The Alexandroupolis-Burgas oil pipeline, whose importance for supplying the Burgas refinery will grow enormously once the derogation for processing Russian oil there is over, was also a topic of the meeting in Athens. The Greek side is interested in building the oil pipeline by the end of 2024, so possible routes and practical steps for the implementation of the project were discussed today.

Greece has expressed interest in two energy projects in Bulgaria - the expansion of the gas storage in Chiren and the construction of two new reactors at Kozloduy NPP. Our neighbours want to keep part of the capacity at Chiren and use additional volumes of gas for a fee. The Hellenic Republic is also ready to participate in the construction of the new capacities at Kozloduy, either as an investor or as a customer with a long-term power purchase agreement.

Greece has already started to develop the railway lines of particular interest to Bulgaria - to Kulata and to Svilengrad. Improving the technical condition of the railways in these two directions would allow more cargo to be transported from Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine and Moldova to Greek ports.

Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis has thanked his counterpart Denkov for the help Bulgaria is giving to its neighbours in the fight against the fires there.

Bulgaria participates for the second consecutive year in the European Commission's initiative for the pre-deployment of modules for fighting forest fires. Currently, 70 Bulgarian firefighters are on the ground with eight fire engines and three force management vehicles. They are deployed at the airport in Thessaloniki.