Bulgaria negotiates with companies from Azerbaijan, Turkey, Russia, in this order, to ensure the necessary quantities of natural gas for the winter, announced the Energy minister Rosen Hristov. According to data from Bulgargaz, the deficit of gas is of 40%, even if the deliveries from the American company Cheniere of seven liquefied gas tankers, agreed by the Petkov cabinet, are being realized.
The latter is also interested in medium-term gas supplies, even if the current arrangements are not finalized, Hristov said, according to Novinite.
“If we decide to negotiate with Gazprom, the best scenario is the resumption of supplies under the current contract (which expires at the end of the year). I don’t see the point of negotiating a new contract from the beginning. We will discuss the way of payment which has been offered to other European countries. We want better terms, to see if they will agree. We must bear in mind that it is not certain whether they would want to work with us, as the previous government did drastic steps for the relations with Russia. Things are complicated in general. I hope that the economic interest will stand aside from the political one,” Hristov said.
He said that he was not ready to give the exact number of gas secured for September from Bulgargaz tenders, and he thought that the information was confidential.
“My idea is to provide gas for 120, 130, 150% of the needs, and thus protect ourselves from geopolitical and technical shocks,” said Hristov.
The new management of the state company Bulgargaz, which was taken over this week by former MP from BSP Denitsa Zlateva, will be asked ”to actively and aggressively react to any fluctuations in the market,” Hristov said. According to him, one should not have fallen into a situation in which one had to search for gas at the last moment.
The other priority is solving the liquidity problems of the company, which received an 800 million BGN state loan. According to Hristov, sources of financing – both state and private – should have been more aggressively sought.