At this point Bulgaria cannot rely on EU funds for the expansion of the gas storage facility in Chiren, Economy and Energy Minister Peter Dimitrov said in Varna. Bulgaria has asked for over 40 million euro for the project phase of the expansion.

Dimitrov presented the results of the meeting of the EU energy ministers in Brussels earlier in the day.

The storage capacity of Chiren's facility needs to be upgraded and Bulgaria daily gas production and consumption have to be levelled, Dimitrov said. He added that the projected investments in Chiren stand at about 250 million euro.

The EU may allocate 40 million euro for an interconnection between the gas networks of Bulgaria and Greece, and another 10 million euro for a link with Romania. Dimitrov said that the joint projects with Romania and Greece would first have to be discussed by the countries' foreign and prime ministers.

Early estimates show that in 2009 foreign investments in Bulgaria approximated 6,000 million euro. Dimitrov said that after the government reviewed possible scenarios to cope with the crisis, it became clear which sectors it had to support at all costs.

Among the priority sectors, Dimitrov singled out tourism, communications and information technology.

Source: BTA