"Kiril Petkov's claims that he opened the interconnector between Greece and Bulgaria on July 8, 2022 are unfounded, since by that date the construction of the gas connection had not yet been completed both technically and in terms of documentation."
This is stated in an official position from the press center of President Rumen Radev (2017-2026) in connection with yesterday's comment on social networks by the former co-chair of "We continue the change".
The position also states:
The gas interconnector between Bulgaria and Greece was completed by the caretaker government of Galab Donev and put into commercial operation on October 1, 2022, with the ceremony in Sofia attended by the President of the EC Ursula Von der Leyen, heads of state and government of the countries in the region.
The explanations for the termination of contractual relations with “Gazprom" by the government of Kiril Petkov do not provide an answer to why other EU member states continue to receive natural gas supplies under their contracts today, unlike Bulgaria.
Kiril Petkov may have contracted 7 tankers with liquefied natural gas at an extremely high price, but not slots for their unloading in either Greece or Turkey. This forced the caretaker government of Galab Donev to deal with the inherited energy crisis and negotiations by securing a slot in the fall of 2022 for the unloading of one of these tankers at the "Botas" terminal.
670,000 mwh of this delivery continues to be stored by "Botas" to this day at the price agreed by the government of Kiril Petkov of 363 BGN/mwh or 185.60 euros. This gas is 6 times more expensive than today's price of 32.30 euros/mwh and is absolutely unsellable, costing "Bulgargaz" 243 million leva.
Instead of provoking a scandal, good behavior requires Kiril Petkov to thank “Botaş“ for continuing to store the expensive and unsellable gas purchased from him.
With their statements, politicians from “We continue the change“ are trying to construct alternative causal relationships between the events of recent years and are completely at odds with the facts”.
Epicenter. bg recalls: The scandal took shape yesterday after Kiril Petkov refuted former President Rumen Radev about the contract with the Turkish gas company “Botaş”.
According to Radev, in 2022 the regular government led by Petkov terminated the contract with “Gazprom” overnight, leaving the country without supplies, at a time when the interconnector with Greece was not ready and there was a lack of Azerbaijani gas.
Petkov corrects Radev and presents a chronology of events:
"We managed to prove that we can do without Russian gas, without any risk to the Bulgarian industry and without bowing to blackmail from outside. I am proud that we did not give in and removed a dependency that falsely frightened Bulgarian citizens for years. And when you remove the inherent fear of an entire country, it becomes freer.
April 27, 2022 - Putin unilaterally stopped supplies of Russian gas despite the valid contract, because we did not agree to their blackmail to start paying in rubles, which would be exchanged for us at the floating exchange rate of Gazprombank. Blackmail with a floating price!
May 1, 2022 - 4 days after this fact, was the statement of Rumen Radev with epithets about me and Assen Vassilev. Nothing to do with any assemblies.
July 8, 2022 - The Greek gas connection was officially completed with the event between Kyriakos Mitsotakis and me. It was officially opened on October 1, 2022. The contract with Botas was signed in January 2023.
August 2022 - After the first two cargoes in 2022, which delivered liquefied gas, we had contracted 7 more cargoes, which were refused by the new acting Minister of Energy and the offer expired on August 19, 2022.
History must be told as it was, so that we can make the right decisions for the future."
Source: epicenter.bg