Atanasov, as cited by Darik radio, made clear that the contract signed with Russian company South Stream Transport in mid-January 2014 was for a four-year term.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Port Varna underscored that even in the case of a re-routing of the gas pipeline via Turkey, the pipes would still have to be offloaded in Varna and Burgas.

Under preliminary plans, the offshore section of the South Stream gas pipeline was to consist of four parallel strings located on the Black Sea seabed, with each string consisting of over 75 000 pipes.

Some of the pipes are still stored on the territory of warehouse terminals at the ports of Varna and Burgas.

• Varna – 30 April to 3 May – Race one
• Novorossiysk – 9 to 12 May
• Sochi – 15 to 18 May – Cruise-in-company
• Constanta – 24 to 27 May – Race Two

The ships will be in Varna between April 30 and May 3 and the varna municipality is planning a series of events. Crew parade and award ceremony will be organised in the city centre. Also a Parade of Sails is scheduled for May 3rd, during which the participating sailing vessels will pass near Varna coast to show their grandeur and beauty.

Patron of the festival days in Varna is Rosen Plevneliev, President of the Republic of Bulgaria and of those in Novorossiysk and Sochi -Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation.

Some of the ships will also be open for visitors. Up to forty tall ships are expected to take part in the regatta.  Only sailing vessels of more than 30-foot water line length and a crew aged 16 to 75 can take part in the race. Bulgaria will be represented by Barquentines Kaliakra and Royal Helena.

Mayor of Varna Ivan Portnih, German Ambassador Matthias Hoepfner  & Honorary Council of Germany in Varna, Mr. Nedyalko Nedelchev – Photo:  Cherno More newspaper

The Municipality of Varna will actively participate in tourism fairs in Germany by advertising itself on four such events there.

The Port of Varna is the largest seaport complex in Bulgaria, located in the Black Sea city of Varna. It attracts serious volumes of cargo, including from Russia via the hugely successful new ferry line Varna-Caucasus.

by StandartNews newspaper

The rightist leader reported Monday the results of the visit of the DSB delegation to China.

“One of the greatest weaknesses of Bulgarian politics in the past few years has been the inability to attract strategic investors that could fetch commodities and create job places so that Bulgaria could emerge from the crisis,” Kostov noted.

“This has to be an investor that could use the strategically important Eastern border of the EU for receiving and processing shipments from and to the fast-developing economies of China, India, Turkey and Russia. The investor has to be able to attract into Bulgaria a share of the commodity flows for Eastern Europe and the Black Sea basin,” the right-wing leader told journalists.

Kostov claimed that Bulgaria had to look for investors whose activities would boost cargo volumes transferred through the domestic transport network, thereby stimulating the industrial development of the districts of Varna and Ruse.

“The Chinese representatives assured us of the country’s readiness to back a large-scale investment project in Bulgaria,” Kostov declared.

“We sought and we received political support and a clarification of the intentions voiced by the Chinese Prime Minister of encouraging investments in Eastern Europe. We were ready with a project, relying on documents prepared by the Transport Ministry regarding the drafting of a letter of intent for granting a concession for the Varna port or at least some of the terminals,” the rightist leader added.

He specified that the DSB delegation had met with three major Chinese investors, including one of the biggest ports in China and the world.

Bird-eye view to port of Varna

The information was announced by the Director of the Port of Bulgaria’s Black Sea capital, Captain Daniel Papazov, quoted by Radio Varna Wednesday.

Expectations for 2012 are that the processed cargo passed at the port will be at least 8 million tons. The port has already sealed 73 permanent contracts for 2011.

The investment program provides for the purchase of two mobile cranes, as well as equipment for loading grain at the Varna – West port.

Grain and shipments from chemical plants based in the town of Devnya, northeastern Bulgaria, accounted for the bulk of the cargo traffic in August.

On August 31 alone, Port Varna East handled 3000 trucks and shipped 30 000 tons of grain, chiefly wheat, maize, canola and barley.

The port’s freight traffic amounted to 5.5 million tons in the first eight months of the year, an annual increase of 10 per cent.

The port also handled 82 000 containers, up eight per cent on the year.

Currently, the port is renovating its fleet as part of its ambitious investment programme.

The port expects to record an improvement in its financial and operating results and to process more than eight million tons of cargo this year.

The event is organised by youth association Amorpha and it is part of FUNCITY youth festival, which started on June 24 2011 in Varna.

Bulgaria’s best graffiti artists and many fans of urban art will gather at Morska gara (Varna Sea Port) in Varna to show their skills.

The motto of the night will be “Black Sea monsters”.

Varna’s pier wall, more than 150 metres long and more than three metres high, will be turned into an artistic canvas for the graffiti masters.

There will be a separate smaller wall for the youngest fans where they can learn how to make graffiti.

Organisers from Amorpha want to popularise this contemporary art form as a way for the young people to change the urban space they live in.

Visitors can see various graffiti techniques and styles at specially designed workshops.

Sprite Graffiti Jam is also a preparation for the national graffiti festival in Sofia, which will be held in September 2011.

Varna’s fishermen sometimes catch also scad, bluefish and red mullet. Fishermen in the northeastern district of Varna rarely fish for sprat, because they find it unprofitable. Fishermen in the southeastern districts of Sozopol and Burgas catch sprat, because they can start fishing immediately after leaving the port, while in Varna fishermen have to sail longer distance before starting to fish, which is not profitable since sprat has a low price. Now fishermen are awaiting the lifting of the ban on turbot catch, he added.

Fisherman’s boat is sailing away from Varna

Photo: VarnaUtre.bg

Com­mis­sion for the Pro­tec­tion of Com­pe­ti­tion (CPC) author­ized the merg­er through  acqui­si­tion of joint con­trol of a new­ly estab­lished soci­e­ty – Var­na Fer­ry Ltd. from the Bul­gar­i­an Mar­i­time Ship­ping Com­pa­ny Ltd. and the Bul­gar­i­an Riv­er Ship­ping AD. The soci­e­ty will effect fer­ry­boat trans­por­ta­tion by the direct rail fer­ry Var­na-Port Kavkaz (Cau­ca­sus).

According to the information supplied by Bulgarian River Shipping to the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, Varna Ferry will deal with freight and cargo ferry shipping, acquisition and management of vessels, and foreign trade. The company has a starting capital of BGN 100 000.

Through the setting up of the Varna Ferry company, the two shipping operators are in fact taking over the operation of the direct railway-ferry boat line between Bulgaria’s Varna and Russia‘s Black Sea Port Kavkaz.

Varna Ferry is being set up after last week the Bulgarian Competition Protection Commission approved the establishment of the joint venture between Navigation Maritime Bulgare and Bulgarian River Shipping.

The competition watchdog found no horizontal or vertical dependence between the two companies, and declared that their joint venture will not change their market situation which made the concentration of business activity permissible. Accord­ing to the Exec­u­tive Agen­cy “Mar­i­time Admin­is­tra­tion” the new line cre­ates sig­nif­i­cant advan­ta­ges for busi­ness­es, such as short­en­ing the dis­tance between Bul­gar­ia and Rus­sia by 800 km and redu­ces the time for car­go deliv­ery by about 40%

The Black Sea ferry line between Bulgaria’s Varna and Port Kavkaz was opened in March 2009 in order to facilitate the trade and transit between Bulgaria and Russia and the former Soviet Republics in Central Asia.

In 2010, the freight traffic through the Varna-Port Kavkaz ferry registered an increase of over 330% year-on-year.