SOFIA, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Bulgaria contracted Royal DutchShell on Tuesday to explore a block off its Black Seacoastline for gas and oil as part of the Balkan country'sefforts to end its almost total dependence on Russia's naturalgas supplies.
Shell won a tender for a 5-year permit for deepwaterexploratory drilling at 1-14 Silistar block that covers 7,000square km in September and pledged to invest 18.6 million euros ($20.5 million) in seismic surveys.
Silistar is near a block in Romanian waters where Austria'sOMV has said it could produce up to 84 billion ofcubic metres of gas, raising Bulgaria's hopes it will be able toexploit reserves off its coast to diversify its energy supplies.
($1 = 0.9082 euros) (Reporting by Tsvetelia Tsolova; editing by Radu Marinas andDavid Clarke)