Bulgaria wants to change the contract with Gazprom

“Bulgaria will ask for a change in the contracts for natural gas transit in order for our country to be able to announce its spare capacity for transport of blue fuel,” Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism Traicho Traikov announced today in the Council of Ministers. He explained that our country does not know what that capacity is and the Russian side is not cooperating in this respect.

Currently, Bulgartransgaz is transiting Russian natural gas to Macedonia, Greece and Turkey, the largest amounts going to Ankara. According to unofficial information, our transit system is operating at about 30% of its capacity. The Russian side wants to load additionally our gas network. Under the agreements between Sofia and Moscow, the existing transit system in Bulgaria in its section to Greece will be used for the needs of the future South Stream gas conduit. “Bulgaria’s contracts with Russia for the transport of natural gas are in force until 2030,” explained Minister Traikov.

“I have been assured by EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger that the European Commission will also participate in the negotiations for specifying the gas network’s capacity. So, we might be successful,” explained Traikov. “This has been my opinion for a long time and I am glad that my position is now backed by Brussels because Europe must be unanimous on energy issues,” he added. Romania faces the same problem, which must be solved because the country also transports large quantities of Russian gas along its network. The issue regarding the spare capacity of the gas transit system was discussed the previous day during Minister Traikov’s meeting with European Commissioner for Trade Karel De Gucht.

Revealing the spare capacity is also part of the EU’s third liberalisation package, which must become part of our legislation. Because of the lack of this information, the access of other dealers to the network is actually blocked and this leads to an absence of market competition.

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