On Monday, the CEO of Bulgarian state gas company Bulgartransgaz, Vladimir Malinov, said that transit of Russian natural gas via Bulgaria through Greece was disrupted by a rupture in a pipeline in southwest Bulgaria.
Malinov elaborated, “There was a rupture in the pipeline that was transporting gas under high pressure. The damaged section was automatically sealed off after a drop in pressure was registered.”
He added that there were no casualties in the incident and expected the reason behind it was a technical problem but the incident has not been fully investigated. According to prosecutors in the initial survey, there are no signs of human interference in the site.
Regarding the case, the Greek energy minister stated that the incident did not put the security of gas supplies in Greece at risk because the country continued to receive gas from a pipeline link with Turkey.
Each year, Bulgaria is a transit place for 3 bcm of Russian gas to Greece.
