Balgarianovinite.com Bulgaria’s Energy Minister Iva Petrova said she expects the natural gas agreement with Turkish company BOTAS and its parameters to be fully renegotiated within one or two months in light of the new market conditions. Expert-level talks on the renegotiation of the agreement are currently underway, she said in an interview with Bulgarian National Television on Saturday.
On June 12, Prime Minister Rumen Radev said the Turkish side has expressed interest in renegotiating the BOTAS agreement in order to deepen energy cooperation with Bulgaria, including in both natural gas transmission and electricity transport. Radev said the issue was discussed during his meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.
Petrova recalled that the agreement with BOTAS was signed under completely different circumstances, when Russian gas supplies to Bulgaria were cut off and there was no alternative entry point for deliveries to the country.
“This agreement played an extremely important role in ensuring the security of supply,” the Energy Minister said. In her words, the market environment and current conditions are now changing, making it entirely normal for partners in a commercial agreement to review the need for changes to its parameters and find a balanced solution in line with present-day conditions.
Petrova said that in such negotiations the agreement must preserve two key benefits for Bulgaria: security of supply and the ability of Bulgargaz to participate actively in the development of the regional market.
Regarding Bulgaria’s gas transmission network, Petrova stressed that it is one of the best interconnected in the region. She said that work is actively underway to increase capacities with all the neighbouring countries and that significant investments are being made in vertical corridors.
In this context, the Energy Minister said Bulgaria’s infrastructure has significant potential to be used for deliveries from secure sources replacing Russian gas, including in view of the adopted regulation on Russian natural gas supplies, which is being phased in, with a full halt expected by the end of 2027.
Petrova expressed hope that Bulgaria will continue to be a reliable partner and transit country for resources for the wider region, Ukraine and Moldova, with prospects for Central Europe.
Backgrounder
On January 3, 2023, the Bulgarian state-owed natural gas supplier Bulgargaz and Turkish energy company BOTAS signed an interconnection agreement, under which the Bulgarian side booked capacity of 106.4GWh/day on the Turkish LNG regasification terminals and agreed to pay for this BGN 1 million (EUR 512,000) daily for a period ending in 2035. At present, Bulgargaz does not import gas under the agreement with BOTAS, and in early May its arrears to the Turkish company approximated BGN 300 million. If the 13-year take-or-pay agreement is rescinded, the Bulgarian company will be liable for close to BGN 3 billion in damages. By a resolution passed on April 19, 2024, the Bulgarian National Assembly assigned then energy minister Vladimir Malinov to take action for re-negotiating the agreement.
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