Parliament Wednesday ratified the Intergovernmental Agreement signed in Ankara on July 13, 2009, for the Nabucco gas pipeline project between the transit countries Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey.

The ratification followed a debate of nearly an hour a half in which all political forces said they will support the construction of the facility but offered different arguments.

The Nabucco project represents a new gas pipeline connecting the Caspian region, Middle East and Egypt via Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary with Austria and further on with the Central and Western European gas markets.

The pipeline length is approximately 3,300 km, starting at the Georgian/Turkish and/or Iranian/Turkish border respectively, leading to Baumgarten in Austria. According to market studies the pipeline has been designed to transport a maximum amount of 31 billion cubic metres per annum. Estimated investment costs including financing costs for a complete new pipeline system amount to approximately 7,900 million euro.

The sponsor of the ratification, the Government, said in its reasoning that Nabucco presents a key opportunity for diversification of gas supplies in Bulgaria. The project will also ensure access of Bulgaria and the European Union to the considerable gas resources of the Caspian Region and the Middle East and would thus reduce the dependence of Russian gas supplies.

Economy and Energy Minister Traicho Traikov said that the first stage of the project will be commissioned in 2015, while the facility will start to operate at full capacity in 2020. The Intergovernmental Agreement has so far been ratified by Hungary, and is in an advanced stage of the process in the remaining countries.

Traikov said furthermore that Bulgaria is also holding negotiations about the South Stream gas pipeline project whose cost is twice the one for Nabucco. South Stream is to transport Russian natural gas to the Black Sea to Bulgaria and further to Italy and Austria.

The opposition Coalition for Bulgaria motivated their support for the project saying that it is an expression of the consistent policy for diversifying the sources and routes for natural gas supplies.

The big policy for energy sources diversification started during the term of office of the previous government, socialist leader and former prime minister Sergei Stanishev said in the plenary chamber. He recommended to the incumbents to continue to work for the South Stream project as well and said that for the realization of such important undertakings the cabinet may rely on the constructive support of the Coalition for Bulgaria.

MP of the right-wing Blue Coalition Ivan Ivanov said that Nabucco provides a true diversification of the sources and supplies of natural gas to Bulgaria and at the moment is the only pipeline to pass via Bulgaria that works two-way.

MP of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms Ramadan Atalay said that the ratification is in Bulgaria's interest.

MP of Ataka Pavel Shopov noted that such a broad political consensus is needed for the other energy issues concerning Bulgaria.