The Cabinet took a decision to open a new tender for prospecting and exploration of oil and gas in the Black Sea at its meeting this week. It’s about Teres Block 1-22, which is located in the exclusive economic zone of Bulgaria and has an area of ??4032 square kilometers. The authorization will be for a period of five years, and in a case of commercial discovery the holder will be named a concessionaire directly.
Interest in this area is very likely to be massive as it is adjacent to block Asparouh, already explored by the consortium of Total, Austria’s OMV and Spain’s Repsol. The agreement for that was signed with the government two months ago.
Meanwhile, Parliament extended by six months the period of the temporary committee on research and analysis on practices for shale gas extraction. It was formed earlier this year after the hydrofracking method was banned because of protests by residents of northeast Bulgaria. The chairman Dian Chervenkondev said he needed more time to work because of the huge volume of documents and data to be explored. Members of the rightist DSB party are however convinced that such an extension is rather unacceptable. According to Asen Agov six months is too long a period for prolongation and the purpose of the extension was to eventually find a reason to allow the extraction of shale gas in the country.
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