Bulgaria’s Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (EWRC) will likely approve a 29.63% gas price hike as of April 1, writes publics.bg. This means gas sold by state-run Bulgargaz to suppliers and large-scale consumers will cost up to BGN 363.26/1000 cubic meters, or BGN 39.04/MWh, without excise duty and VAT, and also excluding the price for transport through the gas transport network charged by state-owned operator Bulgartransgaz. At the current exchange rate 1 Bularian lev equals 2,33 lei, which means that, starting from April 1st, Bulgargaz might sell gas with 91 lei per MWh. This price is higher then the average price recorded in the Romanian market in 2016; data from the National Regulatory Authority for Energy in Romania – ANRE show that between 2016 January and September (the last month for which the Romanian regulator provided info), the weighted average price of the domestic gas for non-casnic consumers varied from 68,23 lei to 81,35 lei pe MWh, on the free market.

Bulgaria is almost fully dependent on its sole supplier of natural gas – Russia’s Gazprom, with small quantities locally produced from Galata field in the Black Sea. At the end of last year, Bulgaria and Romania opened a 25-km gas pipeline, which runs under the Danube River and can operate in either direction. The pipeline has a maximum capacity of 1.5 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas per year from Bulgaria to Romania while the capacity going the other way is 500 million cubic metres per year.