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(Bloomberg) — Bulgaria and Turkey will explore options to increase natural gas transit capacity at their joint border, a move that may allow greater flows from Russia and the Caspian region to reach central Europe.

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The two countries will hold expert-level talks to renegotiate current agreements by May 2, before seeking a political decision to expand the border transit options, Bulgaria’s energy ministry said in a statement on Saturday, after a meeting of the two countries’ energy ministers in Baku, Azerbaijan.

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Bulgaria hosts the only active pipeline route for Russian gas flowing to Europe, after Ukraine ended a long-term contract with Russia’s Gazprom PJSC to transit up to 40 billion cubic meters annually at the end of last year. Bulgaria’s route, which currently transfers about 16 billion cubic meters a year and is used at near-full capacity, is an extension of TurkStream, a Black Sea pipeline designed to bypass Ukraine that was completed before Russia’s invasion in 2022. 

Some European countries that have maintained ties with the Kremlin, including Hungary, Slovakia and Serbia, depend on Gazprom for most of their supplies, although some have weighed alternative sources such as Azerbaijan since Russia’s war disrupted deliveries. Slovakia has said it would multiply deliveries of Russian gas from TurkStream from April.

Turkey “is our strategic partner in fulfilling our priorities related to diversification and energy security,” Bulgarian Energy Minister Zhecho Stankov said, according to the statement.

Bulgaria also has access to gas from Azerbaijan, via Turkey, as well as Turkish terminals for liquefied natural gas, under a deal with state-owned Botas.

Turkey has repeatedly suggested it is ready to increase supplies to Europe, including by creating its own gas blend as some of its long-term contracts with Gazprom expire this year. 

High prices have made it close to impossible for Bulgargaz, Bulgaria’s state-owned distributor, to make use of the Botas deal, under which it has to pay regardless of the quantities used. A possible renegotiation of that agreement will also be a subject of the talks.

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