Nabucco Gas Pipeline, which plans to pump gas from central Asia to Europe starting in 2013, was quoted by news agency Reuters as saying on Monday a survey of potential customers showed its capacity would be overbooked from the first day it goes on stream.

The survey asked potential shippers to declare their interests on a non-binding basis, said Nabucco, a consortium led by Austrian oil and gas group OMV .

The survey was done last month in preparation for the more formal open-season process in which customers make binding bids for capacity, which Nabucco said will start once the legal framework for Nabucco was established.

The planned 3,300 km pipeline has been touted by the European Union as a major cornerstone in its strategy to diversify energy supplies away from Russia towards sources in central Asia and the Middle East.

It has been delayed multiple times amid uncertainty the project can secure enough supplies from nations once part of the Soviet Union and which are subject to intense lobbying by Russia's Gazprom , whose planned Southstream pipeline will rival Nabucco.

Those concerns were heightened by the recent conflict in Georgia, a country on whose border Nabucco is planned to begin.

Nabucco still needs to win exemption from European Union antitrust rules and an agreement between the governments whose countries the pipeline will go through, said Reuters.

Nabucco's shareholders are OMV, Hungary's MOL , Romania's Transgaz , Bulgaria's Bulgargaz, Turkey's Botas and Germany's RWE . The pipeline is expected to cost 7.9 bln euro.

(Dnevnik)

A Dutch-registered unit of Bulgarian business conglomerate Chimimport has placed a 65 mln euro corporate bond with an option to increase the size of the issue by up to 15 mln euro.

The proceeds will be invested in the expansion of the company through strategic acquisitions and for general business purposes, the company said in a statement.

The seven-year convertible bonds have a 7% interest coupon.

If Chimimport shares appreciate by more than 130% over the conversion price set at 10.984 levs per share, the company has the option to buy back the bonds at its own discretion but no sooner than August 22, 2011.

The short-term goals of the company include the merger of the Lukoil Garant and CCB Sila pension insurance companies and air carriers Hemus Air and Bulgaria Air, Chimimport said back in June.

The company also plans to snag banking assets with a solid regional footprint in Russia and the Ukraine. Chimimport has so far entered the Macedonian banking market through its subsidiary Central Co-operative Bank.

Over the mid-term, Chimimport plans to consolidate its real estate operations related to the building of two sports complexes and a retail center in Varna, a Borovets hotel and the Golf Shabla resort.

Over the last couple of years, the conglomerate raised cash mainly through the issue of new shares.

(Dnevnik)

Bulgaria will close a record number of schools this year, allowing developers to remodel the buildings into hotels, retirement homes, spa centers or small factories, found a Dnevnik investigation.

Some 300 schools have been shuttered so far in 2008 at the request of town mayors more than double in comparison with last year.

The fate of the former school buildings, located mainly in small population centers, is decided by the respective municipal council.

Information posted on the websites of regional governments indicate that the school buildings sell at prices ranging from 5,000 to 90,000 levs depending on their location and state of repair.

Town mayors and school principals said the main reason for the record number of closures is the new central budget funding scheme adopted in early 2008 which ties the amount of government aid to the number of enrolled students. The new funding rule has bankrupt the smallest schools in locations where the local government has no money to co-finance their operation.(Dnevnik)

Some of Bulgaria's zinc and lead mines may have to be shut down temporarily if the price of the two metals continues to trend down, said Petar Petrov, executive secretary of the Bulgarian mining and geology chamber.

In case lead dips below $1,300 and zinc falls below $1,500 per ton with no immediate price recovery, all Gorubso mines will certainly close down, said Petrov.

Production costs will become prohibitive and will not be offset at these low metal prices.

Lead and zinc are mined at the Gorubso-Zlatograd, Gorubso-Kardjali, Gorubso-Laki and Rudmetal mines, said Petrov, adding that Rudmetal has been a loss-maker in the past year.

Total closure would be a last-ditch measure, said Valentin Zahariev, majority owner of Intertrust which has 98% of local company Lead and Zinc Complex (OZK). 'It would be logical to simply put up for sale the loss-making mines.'

Zahariev said the possible closure of local miners would have not effect on OZK because it ships 80% of input materials from abroad.

Experts from the mining industry admit that it is too late to invest in underground mines now that prices are on the decline.(Dnevnik)