Bulgaria to mull SOCAR license issuance for gas trading

The Bulgarian Energy and Water Regulatory Commission will hold an open meeting to discuss the issue of issuing a license for the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) to trade in natural gas, Report informs referring to Bulgarian media.

Earlier, the chairman of the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission of Bulgaria, Ivan Ivanov, said that SOCAR has no obstacles to obtaining this license.

“The security of supplies will be improved, as well as the diversification of supplies for other countries in the region. At the same time, this will be a clear implementation of the Solidarity Ring initiative, which was put forward by the Bulgarian side and supported by the European Commission. This further strengthens our role as a country- source for natural gas supplies to other countries in the region,” Ivanov said.

It is also emphasized that SOCAR has a long-term contract with Bulgargaz, according to which Azerbaijan will annually supply about a billion cubic meters of gas to Bulgaria.