SOFIA/ANKARA - Turkey stopped import of electricity from Bulgaria as of Monday midnight saying that Bulgaria didn't fulfil the requirements of the contract.
Energy and Natural Resources Ministry confirmed the incident, while Bulgarian News Agency BTA announced in its news story that Turkey stopped import of electricity from Bulgaria. BTA stated that Turkish Electrical Distribution Corporation (TEDAS) sent a letter to Bulgarian Electricity Corporation (NEK) and stated that Turkey cancelled import of electricity as of last night.
Last week, TEDAS sent a letter to NEK saying that it could stop electricity import saying that the Bulgarian side didn't fulfil the requirements of the bilateral agreement, but as a result of diplomatic initiatives, it wrote a second letter saying that import of electricity would continue.
The electricity crisis between Turkey and Bulgaria started when the cooperation agreement on energy infrastructure and energy trade (dated Nov. 4 1998) was not fully implemented. According to the agreement, Ceylan Holding of Turkey would construct three dams and three hydroelectric plants and a 144 km highway between Orizovo-Kapýkule. In return to that Turkey would import 4 billion kilowatt/hours of electricity annually from Bulgaria till 2008. However Bulgarian administration claimed that Ceylan Holding went bankrupt and suspended the two projects. Although there was no development in both projects in four years, Turkey abided by the agreement and continued to purchase electricity from Bulgaria.
Meanwhile Bulgarian Energy Ministry said that negotiations would start soon to sort out the problem. Bulgaria gained approximately 50 million dollars of income annually by exporting electricity to Turkey.
Turkey imported 4 billion khw of electricity in the year 2002 from Bulgaria.
(ÖS) 22.04.2003