Bulgaria will try to renew contract for supply of Azeri gas

Bulgaria will try to renew the contract for the supply of cheap Azeri gas, Prime Minister Kiril Petkov told journalists on March 15. The chairperson of the board of directors of the public gas supplier “Bulgargaz”, Ivan Topchiski, explained that the company had asked for a 58% increase in the price of natural gas for April because of the drastic rise at international stock quotes, but the markets are now calming down. By the end of the month, if the war does not escalate, prices could remain at their current or lower levels, Energy Minister Alexander Nikolov said.

“Bulgargaz” explained that yesterday's proposal for a drastic price increase was dictated by external factors, but stated that the markets are calming down.

"The first 10 days, you know, in a state of war, quotations and stock indices are very high. From now on, we see a reduction in these quotes, so we expect the values towards the end of the month, when the energy regulator EWRC will actually look at the now official statistics on these indices, to see a reduction from this proposal," said Ivan Topchinski, chair of “Bulgargaz” board of directors.

The chair of the energy watchdog, Energy and Water Regulatory Commission, confirmed that the trend is for prices not to fall.

"If Bulgargaz had submitted their application today, we would not have had a price and increase of 180 BGN, it would have been approximately 135. And this is not an example. In this sense, I can guarantee you that the increase will not be within 57%, as the initial application of Bulgargaz. How much it will be will become clear only in the last days of March. At this moment, if we calculate the increase today, it should be around 30%", said Stanislav Todorov - Chair of the EWRC.

The energy minister reassured households that use gas.

"What we are doing on an ongoing basis is to review what the household gas consumption will be in April. Depending on the price, a decision will be made towards the end of the month on what the compensation should look like and whether it should be extended for another month," said Alexander Nikolov, energy minister.

He pointed out that the government is looking for options to solve the country’s long-term dependence on Russian gas.

"Alternative routes and alternative supplies are the method that can lead to much lower prices," Nikolov said.

The prime minister said that if Bulgaria had not given up on cheap Azeri gas and renewed the contract, which expires this month, the price of blue fuel would have been different now. He assured that the government would do everything necessary to sign a new contract with Baku.

"The point is that nobody is crazy when you have given them the opportunity to no longer sell cheap gas, to suddenly say - even though you have given up, we want to help you," Kirill Petkov said.
Petkov asked the Prosecutor's Office what was happening with the data collected by the Ministry of Interior about the mismanagement of the previous management of Bulgargaz.

"The Ministry of Interior had collected operational data, which the Prosecutor’s Office seized under their competency. But, yes, since then we have heard nothing about what was going on. This is yet another case where I think there was clear abuse and it disappeared into prosecutorial obscurity. They have been collecting data as to why and how the people who run Bulgargaz and had run Bulgargaz, whether they made the decisions in relation to Azeri gas in the right way and whether there are problems there," said Kiril Petkov.

He called for an urgent answer to the most important question.

"What are the critical gas price levels, which if we allow them, we will make a systematic risk for the economy," said Kiril Petkov.

The Prime Minister announced that the gas link with Greece will be ready in 6 months and he will inspect the route with Prime Minister Mitsotakis this Friday.

Bulgargaz assured that they are preparing for any scenario if the war in Ukraine deepens.

"Bulgargaz is also currently storing historically high levels of natural gas in Chiren storage facility," said Ivan Topchiski, chair of the Bulgargaz board of directors.

A public tender for the expansion of the gas storage in Chiren was announced today by Bulgartransgaz.

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