Bulgaria to proceed with plans to transport Russian gas to C. Europe

Bulgaria will go ahead with plans to spend €1.4 billion ($1.59 billion) to build a new gas link to Turkey in order to transport Russian gas from the TurkStream pipeline to Europe, bypassing Ukraine to the south. Lawmakers gave the green light to the state gas company Bulgartransgaz to launch tenders to build a new 484km (300 miles) gas link that will carry mainly Russian natural gas, Reuters reports. “What follows from now on is strict observation of European Union rules and procedures, so that we can eliminate all eventual mistakes that in the past have led to the cancellation of South Stream,” Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova said.