President Rumen Radev stated that the contract with the Turkish company "Botash", concluded at the time of the caretaker government appointed by him, is part of Bulgaria's diversification, BNR reported.
"The contract with "Botash" is for access to the liquefied gas terminals, of which there are 5 in Turkey with a capacity of nearly 30 billion cubic meters and transmission through the "Botash" network. But here are some of the interesting questions - why the PP-DB government does not take advantage of these wonderful opportunities, and does not use this capacity to sell gas, finally, to Bulgaria. Not just to transit through our territory, but to sell, to earn "Bulgargaz", to earn Bulgaria, to take advantage of its geostrategic position. Why during the PP-DB governments both times "Bulgargaz" almost bankrupt? Why do both governments of the PP-DB, which are fighting a self-sacrificing struggle against Putin, still under their rule powerful pipeline gas invades our country from a single direction?“ asked the head of state, quoted by BTA.
"It was concluded in critical circumstances when the Cabinet "Petkov" left us with no gas, no interconnect, no slots – nothing. Then Mr. Petkov begged President Erdogan for a single slot, and without success. When analyzing a contract of this magnitude, when evaluating it, it should be clear that this contract needs to be looked at much more comprehensively, with a much wider range of issues. Not only the current picture at the current stage, but also what are the trends for the gas market in the region and for gas consumption," said Radev.
He called for looking at the numbers.
"For last year, Bulgarian consumption was 2.7 billion cubic meters. One billion cubic meters comes from Azerbaijan. Given that they did not take advantage of the opportunity through "Botash" to supply liquefied gas. Ask the remaining 1.7 billion, where are they from, what are their origins, what intermediaries are they with? Why do we still have intermediaries and at what price is this thing?“, the head of state also asked.
According to Rumen Radev, there are two options for this contract. “One possibility is to make it so that Bulgaria can finally start selling gas. This will not happen with the stupid energy contribution that PP-DB imposed, with which they totally discredited us as partners and traders throughout Europe. Now we have yet to start rebuilding trust. Or they get busy, and finally we use the huge opportunities that this contract gives us as reserved capacity, which other countries don't have, and we start selling. If we do not have such ambitions and cannot do it, then let it be reconsidered. But let's not start from the current picture, but also look to the future", the president thinks.