Most likely, from tonight Greece will supply natural gas to Bulgaria, which is in front of a huge problem. 92% of Bulgaria’s heating depends on the Russian gas, which stopped from the beginning of the year.

Greece will supply Bulgaria with two million cubic meters of natural gas per day, until the flow from Russia through Ukraine is restored.

Moscow and Kiev agreed and it is expected that soon the gas flow towards the European countries will start.

The contract between Bulgargas and the State Gas Company in Greece (DEPA) will be signed at noon today and right after that the gas will leave for Bulgaria.

DEPA’s chairman Asimakis Papageorgiou said for the Greek “Elefterotypia” newspaper, that these supplies are part of the liquid gas reserve, which the country has and is the maximum quantity, which can be afforded without causing problems on the market. He believes that it will not be a problem for Greece to supply Bulgaria with gas until the beginning of February but believes that Russia will restore its gas deliveries until the end of the week.

Since the beginning of the crisis Bulgaria stood up in front of a huge problem because in order to heat its cities, the country depends 92% on the Russian gas. During all this time Bulgaria has been using an underground bed reserve, which supplied it with four million cubic meters daily, when the country needed 14 million cubic meters. This reserve is depleting and from today the problem will worsen. According to a Reuters announcement, Bulgaria could start importing 500 000 cubic meters of gas from Turkey.

In a conversation, which took place last Saturday, the Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev thanked the Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis for the cooperation in this critical moment.