Bulgaria Cancels Chevron Shale Gas Permit

News agencies are reporting that the Bulgarian government has cancelled an exploration permit for shale gas granted last June to Chevron Corp.

The government indicated that Chevron can proceed with opertaions on the Novi Pazar concession in northeastern Bulgaria, but only by using conventional drilling techniques and not hydraulic fracturing.

"The idea is that they can still have the right to test for oil and gas, but without using the controversial technology hydraulic fracturing," Economy and Energy Minister Traicho Traikov told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

Chevron had reportedlt not received formal notification and Traikov said that talks with the company were pending.

On Monday, the GERB ruling party had agreed to support a temporary moratorium on shale gas exploration and development following a meeting of the Parliamentary Energy Committee.

At that time, a statement was made by Valentin Nikolov, deputy head of the center-right party GERB, indicated that a moratorium would be in place until the Ministry of Economy, Energy, and Tourism and the Ministry of Environment and Waters, prepared appropriate legislative amendments safeguarding the environment which would be adopted by Parliament.

The decision by the government follows protests focusing on the process of hydraulic fracturing which took place in several cities during the past weekend.

A proposal on the temporary moratorium is expected to be proposed to Parliament on Wednesday.