Delyan Dobrev, MP with mandate-holder Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (CEDB), Chairperson of the parliamentary Energy Committee, and former economy, energy and tourism minister, spoke Thursday for bTV, touching upon the matter of gas deliveries after the suspension of Russian gas deliveries to Ukraine.
“Pressure in the gas pipelines, transit [pipfcxelines], and the pipeline delivering gas to Bulgaria is normal,” he said.
“We do not expect problems as the situation is quite different from that seen in 2009. The only source of gas for Ukraine was Russia back then,” Dobrev commented.
“Ukraine has had alternative gas sources for over a year; it has alternative deliveries through Poland and Slovakia and meets over 50% of its needs using the other routes,” the lawmaker stated.
In his words, Ukraine also has big gas depots, which are at present full of some 16.5 billion m3 of gas, which suffice for the highest possible consumption in the winter. For comparison, Bulgaria’s Chiren gas depot has about 0.5 billion m3 of gas.
“On the other hand, Bulgaria is also in a different situation as gas was injected into the Chiren gas depot until 3 days ago and at present it has over 450 million m3 of gas, which means it is full,” Delyan Dobrev added.
In his words, gas could be also received from Greece through reserve flows.
“Our alternative is the gas from the Caspian region, for instance Azerbaijan. This gas will reach us in 2019. The problem does not lie with whether the pipes were built but with the fact there is no immediate alternative,” the MP commented.
“Liquefied gas is not an alternative for Bulgaria against this low price of oil and respectively low price of gas; it does not offer a competitive enough price to be an alternative and [for us] to import liquefied gas into the country,” the former minister pointed out.
According to Delyan Dobrev, the suspension of gas deliveries to Ukraine will not be fatal as they have other gas sources and it should not affect Bulgaria.
Referring to a statement of energy expert Hristo Kazandzhiev, who said it was a false belief the Chiren underground gas depot could provide a sufficient amount of gas to meet the country’s needs, Dobrev stated this depended on the season in which gas was consumed.
“Depending on how full the depot is, we can consume between 4 and 5 million m3 per day plus 2 million m3 of gas from Greece. Yesterday’s consumption was 9 million m3, which is more than what Chiren and the alternative from Greece provide. If the deliveries of Russian gas are possibly suspended, we will have to restrict some of the [gas] consuming entities in the country. However, no such danger is spotted,” the lawmaker assured.