US energy giant Chevron has landed a Bulgarian shale gas exploration concession with a whopping offer of EUR 30 million, Bulgarian economy minister Mr Traicho Traikov has announced.

Mr Traikov said that the exploration plot is near Novi Pazar in northeastern Bulgaria, and the Bulgarian government had set a minimum price of only EUR 200,000 for the five year, expressing his satisfaction that Chevron's EUR 30 million will be poured directly into Bulgaria's state budget.

Chevron beat British company BNK Petroleum, which remained second; the Bulgarian Ministry of Economy, Energy, and Tourism opened their offers several days but the results were not made public until Saturday.

According to the estimates of the bidders, the deposit near Novi Pazar contains between 300 billion and 1 trillion cubic meters of shale gas. Bidders can submit offers until the end of June 2011 for two other shale gas exploration tenders held by the Bulgarian government.

A few days ago, Mr Traikov remarked that Bulgaria's shale gas deposits should be able to guarantee its domestic consumption for the next 1000 years. He said the explorations usually take 2 to 3 years, plus 2 to 3 years to construct the extraction infrastructure.

The Economy Minister revealed that in 2010 Bulgaria's ministries of economy and regional development raised a total of BGL 53 million from concessions.

US company Chevron made clear its interest in Bulgaria's unexplored but potentially substantial shale gas deposit over the past two years. The perfecting of the technology for extraction from horizontal layers in the USA and Canada has allowed extraction in North America.

(Sourced from www.novinite.com)