Bulgaria signs deal for new gas link to Greece

SOFIA, July 14 (Reuters) - The Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) signed an agreement with Greek natural gas monopoly DEPA and Italy's Edison SpA (EDN.MI) on Tuesday to build a gas link to Greece to ease Bulgaria's dependence on Russian gas.

The link will allow Bulgaria, the country worst hit by a cut in Russian gas supplies in January, to import 1 billion cubic metres of Azeri gas per year from 2012 through the ITGI pipeline due to carry Caspian gas via Turkey and Greece to Italy, BEH said.

State-owned BEH, which runs all big Bulgarian state energy companies, also signed a deal with Greece's gas grid operator DESFA to use the capacity of the Greek LNG terminal near Athens and import 1 bcm of gas per year. (Reporting by Irina Ivanova; Editing by David Cowell)