The contract with the Turkish state-owned company "Botaş" was redundant when it was signed and is still redundant. This was said by Energy Minister Zhecho Stankov in the program "The Day Begins with Georgi Lyubenov".
"At the time of signing the contract with the colleagues from "Botaş" nothing required such a contract and I will say in simple words why, because the state-owned company "Bulgargaz" "at the end of each year, it knows exactly how much gas its customers want for the next year, this was the case in 2022, when the contract was signed," Stankov explained.
According to him, the surplus of gas has led to confusing situations.
"Greek companies have supplied gas to Bulgaria and this gas has again been sold at half price in Greece, can you imagine where we have come to, we have, so to speak, subsidized the Greek state," said the Minister of Energy.
According to Stankov, the capacity under the contract with "Botas" has been used twice, and this was only 13% of the contract's capabilities, but our gas companies continue to do everything possible to be able to use the opportunities more fully. However, it turned out that it was not profitable.
"We are trying to use it in every way, but our gas is becoming more expensive by 30%. We are looking for the moments on the market when the price of the blue fuel is the lowest, so that we can reduce the total price of gas by buying cheap gas," the minister explained.
This is how he responded to the criticism of President Rumen Radev that the signed contract is not being used and the state is doing nothing about the issue, and therefore it is unprofitable. Zhecho Stankov has tried to sell part of the agreed capacity to Moldova, Hungary and Slovakia, but without success.
Stankov also announced that former Minister Rosen Hristov had written a letter for access to information to the ministry asking whether an economic analysis of the contract had been made.
"I was a little surprised - what kind of economic analysis, such an analysis is done before the contract is signed, and not after. "They charged us over 550 million for one year, we have used about 110 million," the minister explained.
According to him, efforts to renegotiate the deal are continuing, but the Turkish side has no interest in changing the contract for now. When asked why the director of "Bulgartransgaz" Vladimir Malinov, who also participated in the negotiations with "Botaş", is not being investigated, but only the director of "Bulgargaz" Denitsa Zlateva. He replied that he suspects that the two directors did not participate in the actual negotiations, but were ordered by former Energy Minister Rosen Hristov to conclude the contract.
The minister also commented on the electricity market in the country. According to him, people's bills will not increase because of the eurozone. Amendments to the energy law are currently being considered to allow for better protection of consumers in the event of severe accidents like last year.
"I made a commitment to Bulgarian households to put the EDP in a corner. With the new law, the household is the strong party, not the electricity supplier", said Stankov.
He also commented on what is happening at "Lukoil", saying that the state representative reported to him that so far the company's supervisory board has not discussed its possible sale.