Bulgartransgaz: Cooperation and solidarity are at the heart of the STRING initiative

In the presence of the President of the Republic of Bulgaria Rumen Radev and the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed in Sofia to promote cooperation between the operators of the gas transmission systems of Bulgartransgaz EAD (Bulgaria), Transgaz S.A. (Romania), FGSZ Ltd. (Hungary), Eustream (Slovakia) and the state oil company of the Republic of Azerbaijan - SOCAR.

The document was signed at an official ceremony in Sofia by the Minister of Energy of the Republic of Bulgaria Rosen Hristov, the Minister of Energy of Romania Virgil-Daniel Popescu, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary Peter Szijjártó, the Minister of Economy of the Slovak Republic Karel Hirman and the Minister of energy of the Republic of Azerbaijan Parviz Shahbazov. The memorandum is about the Solidarity Ring (STRING) joint initiative, the aim of which is to increase the security of natural gas supplies for the European Union and the region of Central and South-Eastern Europe.

The executive director of "Bulgartransgaz" EAD, Vladimir Malinov, recalled that, on the initiative of the Bulgarian side, the Solidarity Ring was announced on October 1 last year. "The signing of the memorandum today confirms the expediency of the initiative and will help to immediately provide additional quantities of natural gas to Europe from Azerbaijan via a secure route," he added. The STRING initiative provides a viable and effective opportunity to diversify and increase the security of natural gas supplies for Central, Eastern and Southern Europe. This route for the supply of natural gas up to 5 billion cubic meters/year can be used already this fall thanks to the well-developed gas infrastructure in the countries of the region.

"Cooperation and solidarity are at the heart of the Solidarity ring initiative. Just when our partners are most in need of secure, reliable supplies, of diversification, we all together made it so that we could provide it", emphasized the President of the Republic of Bulgaria Rumen Radev. "I am convinced that the memorandum signed today strengthens in an extremely strong way our successful partnership and interaction, opens up new opportunities and will lead to an increase in the capacity of the gas transmission network of our countries and our mutual connectivity," he also said.

"The global challenges we are facing in recent months require global efforts. If we want energy security, we must work together in one direction. Today's event is an important step towards exactly that, and I am glad that Bulgaria was the initiator of this project. I thank the political support at the highest level - I thank Presidents Radev and Aliyev for providing us with a stable platform to carry out this process of signing today's memorandum, as well as to work on more strategic goals", stated the Minister of Energy of the Republic of Bulgaria Rosen Christ's

In a video message, European Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson welcomed the initiative and stressed that the current Memorandum of Understanding between Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Azerbaijan is crucial: it will provide the framework for the further development of alternative gas supply routes for the region, while at the same time Azerbaijan has proven itself to be a reliable partner of the EU. "This winter domestic supply was vital to ensure security of energy supply. The Commission seriously supports future efforts to secure alternative gas supply routes from the Caspian Sea to Central and Eastern Europe," she added.