site.btaBulgaria's Natgas Import Dependency Rate at 96%, EU's at 83%

In 2021, Bulgaria's natural gas import dependency rate was 96% which marked a decrease of 1%, year-on-year. At the same time, EU’s natural gas import dependency rate was 83% which was also a 1 percentage point less than in 2020, according to Eurostat.

In 2020, the share of natural gas in Bulgaria's overall energy mix stood at 14%.

The slight decrease of the import dependency rate is due to the fact that most EU members used their reserves of natural gas imported in previous years. In 2021, the depletion of natural gas reserves was the largest since such a record is kept (since 2008), Eurostat also reported.

In 2021, the EU country with the highest natural gas import dependency was Malta (104%), followed by Sweden (102%), and Lithuania (101%), which all have increased their gas stock. At the other extreme were Romania (24%), Denmark (26%), and the Netherlands (33%).