A week ago I gave a short interview to Radio Varna on the occasion of the new public discussions of the EIA Report of the project for natural gas production from the Spasovo field in the General Toshevo municipality. The previous discussions were held about ten years ago and culminated in a local referendum, in which a vast majority of the municipality's residents voted against the realization of the production.
The facts are very simple and easy to verify: This is a project for conventional production (without the use of hydraulic fracturing / fracking) on a small scale, with insignificant risks and impacts on the environment, for which there should be no discussion whatsoever. According to the plans, the production will reach a maximum of 140 million cubic meters per year, which is about 3 times less than the production from Galata 15 years ago (unfortunately already exhausted). This will cover only 5% of the annual needs of the Bulgarian economy.
However, the significance of the project is enormous from the point of view of the state and our industry, because it would be the first step towards the revival of natural gas production in Bulgaria. While the previous discussions took place in the conditions of constant and "secure" gas imports from Russia (which was extremely attached to this dependence), the current ones are in a completely different situation. Europe is in a permanent energy crisis that has been slowly killing our economy for more than 5 years now. Gas varies from very expensive to extremely expensive in a few months, and supplies – from increasingly uncertain and remote parts of an increasingly fragmented world. This completely changes the framework on the issue of the meaning and value of local production. It becomes an alternative guarantor of the country's energy and resource security.
There is no way a country can get anywhere if it does not start with the first step. The state is the sole owner of the natural resources in Bulgaria. Their extraction depends solely on it. That is why the implementation of this project is, for me, the surest indicator of the orientation and priorities of the new/any government. If it truly protects the national interest, it will do what is necessary to extract gas in Bulgaria not only from the Spasovo field, but also from any other place, and as quickly as possible. If the government is pro-Russian (as a large part of the opposition claims and as all previous governments have apparently been in the last 15 years), it will watch from the sidelines as extraction is once again hindered in the service of someone's personal interests, which coincidentally coincide with those of Moscow.
In neighboring Romania, there are many similar projects that are being implemented without any problems, and in a month large-scale extraction will begin in the Black Sea. At this time, we are still wondering whether to explore and whether to use our only field with proven reserves...