21.01.2026
The central government joins as an investor the prospecting and exploration of subsoil resources. We develop the potential of the extractive industry with focused intentions so that the country can really have the competitiveness for which the potential exists but which has not been effectively used until now. This was stated by Prime Minister Rossen Jeliazkov at the signing ceremony of an agreement on the contribution of the Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH EAD) to the oil and gas prospecting in the Khan Asparouh Block in the Black Sea. With Prime Minister Rossen Jeliazkov and Energy Minister Zhecho Stankov attending, the Bulgarian Energy Holding, OMV Offshore Bulgaria and NewMed Energy Balkan Limited, concluded an agreement on the basis of which the BEH will acquire 10% of the rights to prospect for oil and natural gas in Block 1-21 Khan Asparouh.
“The Bulgarian government is now in a new role in the prospecting and exploration of oil and gas in the Black Sea – not as an actor in the regulation and control, but as an investor. For us such an involvement is a new understanding of the investment potential and investment intentions of the central government as an active player in economic processes,” Rossen Jeliazkov stressed. He emphasized that the potential that the central government brings by its institutions and business entities encourages its involvement in active businesses that can bring very high added value to the investments made.
Energy Minister Zhecho Stankov said that following a cabinet decision, the BEH will acquire a 10% stake in the consortium with OMV and NewMed for the prospecting in the deepwater zone of the Black Sea and that this is the first involvement of a Bulgarian company in such a project. As the Energy Minister said, the negotiating team was engaged in negotiations in the course of nine months, sometimes in constructive discussions, sometimes confronted with difficulties, yet the process was successfully completed and all documents were signed. “The Bulgarian national treasury will receive up to 30% of fees, and the BEH will benefit with 10% of the future revenue and this is a strategic step towards the country’s energy security and guaranteed competitively priced natural gas supply of its own for the Bulgarian citizens,” Minister Zhecho Stankov said further.
The Prime Minister thanked OMV Offshore Bulgaria and NewMed Energy Balkan Limited for their treatment of the Bulgarian State as an equal business partner. “I am confident that the opportunities for the Bulgarian market to be supplied sooner or later by its domestic industry will contribute to the country’s stronger independence in terms of energy and resources, so that we can become a strategic hub of Southeast Europe,” the Prime Minister said further.
