On 03.01.2023, in the meeting of the Minister of Energy of Bulgaria and Typcia Pocen Xpictov and Fatix Demez, the agreement was signed by the party the company "Bylgapgaz" EAD and the state-owned energy company BOTAS. This recalls Vladislava Peeva, mediapool.bg.
Until now, the state gas supplier "Bulgargaz" should have paid roughly over 250 million dollars to the Turkish gas transmission operator BOTAS for the capacity reserved from January 1, 2023 for the transmission of natural gas from Turkish terminals for the regasification of the liquefied blue fuel to the border with Bulgaria. This is indicated by the clauses in the 13-year agreement between the two companies, which were published on Wednesday by the BG Elves organization on Facebook and Telegram. "The Elves" (The Bulgarian online community BG Elves "Bulgarian Elves", supporting Ukraine) made public a month ago the missing road map for the construction of the continuation of the gas pipeline "Turkish Stream" through the Bulgarian side, which confirmed the media publications from the time of the construction of the facility, that it was being done under the dictation of the Kremlin and with the participation of Russian companies.
The now-leaked document marked "trade secret" signed between "Bulgargaz" and BOTAS, also confirms the data already released to the public last summer. It became public the day after Vladimir Malinov, who headed "Bulgartransgaz", became acting Minister of Energy. "The Elves" they point to him as the architect of the gas agreement and note that he coordinated its signing by forwarding the email with the document sent by the Turks to the director of "Bulgargaz" Denitsa Zlateva. From the history of the e-mail, it is clear that it was initially sent not only to Malinov, but also to Zlateva, as well as to another member of the board of "Bulgargaz" – Veselin Sinabov, and to the then head of the political cabinet of the then acting Energy Minister Rosen Hristov – Lubomira Gancheva.
According to the public agreement, "Bulgargaz" undertakes to pay USD 486,514 per day to BOTASH from January 1, 2023. The sum is formed by reserved daily capacity for delivery to Turkish terminals of 53,200 MWh, which the Turkish operator must transfer to the point of connection of the Turkish and Bulgarian gas networks – Strandzha/Malkochlar. For this amount, the fee is $9,145 per megawatt hour, payable for each of the contracted 19,418 million MWh per year, regardless of whether they are supplied by "Bulgargaz" at Turkish terminals. For the period from January 1 until now, this makes about 224 million dollars.
To the bill, however, must be added the fee for the input capacity of BOTASH to Bulgaria, whose price fixed in the agreement is 204 euros/MWh per year, which, according to the agreed quantities, makes 10,852 million euros per year. "Bulgargaz" however, it also pays for input capacity at the Strandzha/Malkochlar point of "Bulgartransgaz". The currently effective tariff for input annual capacity at the same point, approved by the Commission for Energy and Water Regulation, is BGN 462.67/MWh. That is, the gas supplier pays about 11.3 million euros per year to "Bulgartransgaz". This is how the total costs of "Bulgargaz" over 250 million dollars.
In contrast, "Bulgargaz" in reality, in one year and three months, it has provided only 2.5 million MWh of liquefied gas to Turkish terminals. The first cargo arrived in April 2023, when the American "Shanir" delivered 500 thousand MWh of gas to the "Ereglisi" terminal on the Sea of Marmara instead of the French "Total", which had won the first tender for supplies under the agreement with BOTASH, but unloaded them in Greece - on the "Revitusa".
In August last year, "Bulgargaz" announced that there would be further tenders for supplies to the Turkish terminals in the autumn and winter of 2023. However, this did not happen, and in the autumn the company announced procedures directly for 2024, seeking 1 million MWh each for January and February and for July and August. "Total" was again the preferred seller, but only for the first two months of the year. For the other two months, it turned out that the prices were not profitable.
Thus, at the moment, the quantities secured through the contract with BOTASH are only 2.5 million MWh or less than 240 million cubic meters with a total reserved annual capacity of 19.418 million MWh or 1.85 billion cubic meters.
Hypothetically, it is now possible for "Bulgargaz" to have another 1.5 million MWh secured for delivery in Turkey. The company announced a tender for the unloading of such volumes at the terminal in Alexandroupolis, which is due to come into operation on April 30. However, the conditions allow the regasification to take place in Turkey as well. According to them, the supplier of these quantities should have become clear on April 5, but "Bulgargaz" has not announced the results of this auction.
According to gas traders with whom Mediapool spoke, the complex price of BOTASH's service of $9,145/MWh is higher than usual for gas transmission operators. Tariffs for output capacity from Turkey to Bulgaria are okay. The main problem is that "Bulgargaz" fails to secure the huge quantities of gas to be unloaded in Turkey.
So the ambition of the former minister of energy Rosen Hristov "Bulgargaz" was totally not achieved. to supply blue fuel not only to the domestic market, but also to Romania and Hungary and to become an important trader in the region. Instead of selling the neighboring countries real "Bulgargaz" continues to import gas from Greece, in addition to the cheaper Azeri quantities of 1 billion cubic meters per year. And at prices that form an internal value of the raw material of nearly BGN 58/MWh. in April.
For a comparison of gas hub "Balkan" since the beginning of April, the exchange price is around BGN 40/MWh in the trading for the next day.