The American investment company Elliott Investment Management is negotiating to buy a stake in the "TurkStream" gas pipeline, including a section of the route in Bulgaria, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing its sources.
„An American hedge fund, led by billionaire founder Paul Singer, is considering taking a stake in the Bulgarian extension of the "TurkStream" gas pipeline, the publication says.
It is noted that in addition to infrastructure assets, the company plans to gain access to a network of data centers, data transmission cables and other assets.
According to sources of the publication, Elliott Investment Management recently signed a non-disclosure agreement with the Bulgarian gas operator Bulgartransgaz, and at the end of April, representatives of the American company held a meeting with representatives of the Bulgarian government.
As the newspaper points out, negotiations are at an early stage and there are no guarantees that the deal will be completed. In addition, the potential size of the investment is unclear.
“The investment of an American fund in a pipeline carrying Russian gas could help strengthen Moscow's fuel supplies as European leaders try to wean themselves off their last Russian energy supplies,“ the publication writes.
"Turkish Stream" is an export gas pipeline from Russia to Turkey across the Black Sea. The first of the two gas pipelines is designed to supply gas to Turkish consumers, and the second - to supply gas to the countries of Southern and Southeastern Europe. These are Serbia, Romania, Greece, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary. The total capacity of "Turkish Stream" is 31.5 billion cubic meters per year. After the termination of the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine on January 1, 2025, this route became the only one for Gazprom's supplies to Europe.