Bulgaria plans to end Russian gas transit through its territory, to Serbia and Hungary, in 2026, Bulgarian Prime Minister Rosen Jelyazkov said on Tuesday, in response to US President Donald Trump’s call for Europe to stop buying Russian energy, EFE reports.
Also, in 2028, Russian natural gas would be completely excluded from the Bulgarian energy market, Prime Minister Rosen Jelyazkov added from New York, where he is attending the UN General Assembly.
“Regarding President Trump’s call, made during the General Assembly session, we, as part of the European Union, will join the Union’s decision to suspend, in the short term (2026), contracts for the use or transit of Russian natural gas,” Jelyazkov said, according to Agerpres.
By 2026, contracts for the use or transit of Russian natural gas should be terminated, and in the long term, by 2028, they should be completely excluded from the Bulgarian energy market, Prime Minister Jelyazkov said.
While a few years ago Bulgaria relied almost entirely on Russia to cover its energy needs, today the neighboring country covers its entire gas consumption with imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), which arrive via a pipeline from Greece.
Prime Minister Jelyazkov assured that Bulgaria has already agreed on very favorable conditions for the import of liquefied gas from the United States.
Bulgaria hosts a section of the Turkish Stream pipeline (called Balkan Stream on the Bulgarian section) and does not receive gas via this route, but only charges fees for gas transit through its territory.
Russian group Gazprom has reserved almost the entire capacity – 13 billion cubic meters per year – of the Turkish Stream pipeline, which supplies natural gas to Serbia and Hungary via Turkey and Bulgaria.
Built between 2017 and 2021, the Bulgarian section of Turkish Stream became operational on January 1, 2022, less than two months before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. Since then and until the end of March 2024, Bulgaria’s revenues from gas transit through this facility amounted to about 800 million euros.