Bulgaria have become the latest country to become interested in Qatar’s huge reserves of natural gas after the country’s resident met with the Emir of Qatar to discuss the possible construction of a number of liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals in various European states.
A statement released by Bulgarian President Georgy Parvanov and reported by news gathering agency AFP, did not give any specific details about where the LNG terminals would be located but the talks can be seen as Europe’s apparent willingness to find alternatives to Russian gas.
Russia has come under criticism from some quarters for their strong-arm tactics in regards to supplying gas. Bulgaria has almost total dependence on Russian gas via a pipeline running through Ukraine. The country suffered acute shortages in January after Russia cut supplies to Ukraine because of a price row.
During his visit to Bulgaria, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani also made an agreement with the country’s leaders for “economic and technical cooperation” and Bulgarian economy and energy minister Petar Dimitrov also told AFP that Qatar would attend the Natural Gas for Europe summit being held in Sofia on April 24-25.
Bulgaria is not the first European country that is interested in Qatar’s gas reserves. Last week Qatargas 2 was officially opened by the Emir of Qatar. The LNG terminal will eventually supply the UK with up to 20% of its natural gas requirements.
