Burgas Harbour

The Burgas Harbour, known locally as the Port of Bourgas, is not really a tourist sight, but very much a place of work and an important part of Burgas, as the largest Bulgarian Black Sea harbour - the other major port being Varna.

Ships come to Burgas from the Black Sea region as well as through the Bosporus Straight and the Dardanelles from the Mediterranean Sea, handling a large part of the cargo traffic to Bulgaria. Cargo leaving Burgas contain goods like wheat, barley, barites, non-ferrous metals and copper concentrates, while coal and diesel oil is arriving.

Burgas Harbour handles both bulk, container and trailers, and on the South side of the bay you find a dedicated crude oil facility, the Rossenetz Facility, which was taken into use in 1963. Today it's operated by Lukoil.

The Burgas Harbour as we know it today was opened on May 18, 1903, after a decree signed by Prince Ferdinand I on December 20, 1894. The first cranes, Skoda electric cranes, were put to work in 1941, after almost 4 decades of completely manual operation. Before the cranes, all cargo was moved by humans and mules.

The coal facility is important to Burgas' power needs. The nuclear power plant at Ruse on the Danube River border with Romania has diminished the use of coal for electricity production in Bulgaria a great deal, but coal is still needed today, eg. at the Maritza East power plant, which received a new coal-fired power generator as late as in September 2006.

Bulgarians seem to have surprisingly little use for the Black Sea for recreational purposes, apart from visits to the beaches. But the cargo transport is in important part of the supply chain between Bulgaria and the World. Burgas Harbour is currently working on an expansion project to enlarge the harbour with a liquid cargo terminal, a bulk and metals terminal, a ro-ro and ferry terminal and a container terminal, which will be added by filling out areas in the bay South of the current facilities. The project is expected to be finished in 2015. The plan doesn't include any kind of cruiseship facilities, which is somewhat surprising considering the currently increasing cruise traffic from the Mediterranean through the Bosporus Strait to Yalta.