SOFIA, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Bulgaria faces no austerity measures in electricity consumption, and no termination of central heating, and its economy could function for up to 100 days on the country's reserves, Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov announced Wednesday.  

Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov (C) holds a meeting of the Consultative National Security Council after the Russian gas supplies for the country coming through Ukraine's transit routes were cut off early Tuesday morning in Sofia, Bulgaria, Jan. 7, 2009. (Xinhua/BTA Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    The president made the announcement after a meeting of the Consultative National Security Council that he summoned after the Russian gas supplies for the country coming through Ukraine's transit routes were cut off early Tuesday morning.

    According to the President, the council had reached a consensus on the internal measures that the Bulgarian authorities need to take in order to alleviate the effects of the Russia-Ukraine gas prices dispute on the country, local press reported.

    In the short run, the Bulgarian economy will be supplied with four million cubic meters of natural gas per day from the two storage facilities at Chiren and Galata. These should be sufficient to keep the economy running for about 90-100 days without the regular Russian supplies of natural gas, of course, with restricted consumption.

    The social institutions and the heating utilities as well as those plants that on work on non-stop production cycles will receive natural gas as a priority.

    In the president's words, the only effect of the gas shortage that most Bulgarians would feel was slight reduction in the amount of heat they received from the central heating plants.

    In the medium run, Parvanov mentioned some other measures to provide for Bulgaria's energy security including the expansion of the Chiren storage facility, and more importantly, building a 70-kilometers long gas transit pipeline between the Bulgarian city of Dimitrovgrad and the Greek town of Komotini, with which Bulgaria would join the Turkey-Greece-Italy pipeline.

    Thus, it would be able to receive a total of four billion cubicmeters of natural gas annually that the President recently negotiated with Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Egypt.

    Parvanov was positive that this new gas pipeline link would be completed by the end of 2009. In his words, the money for the construction should come from the European Union.

    Another medium-term measure the President mentioned regarding improving Bulgaria's energy security was the construction of a terminal for liquified natural gas at a port in Northern Greece.

    At 3:30 a.m. local time (0130 GMT) Tuesday morning, all natural gas supplies for Bulgaria and the adjacent Balkan countries were cut off at the Ukraine-Romania border without any explanations. Bulgaria's natural gas consumption had been cut by two thirds as the Russian gas supplies were terminated, and the country had to rely only on its reserves at the Chiren Storage Facility.

    As a country which deeply depends on natural gas with more than90 percent gas supplied by Russia, Bulgaria was faced with an serious gas crisis.