site.btaUPDATED Alternative Deliveries of Natural Gas Contracted for May - Bulgargaz CEO

Alternative deliveries of natural gas have been contracted for May to replace the discontinued supplies from Russia, Bulgargaz Executive Director Lyudmil Yotsov said Friday during a meeting of the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (EWRC) at which the regulator is discussing the Bulgarian public supplier's price proposal for May.

Yotsov specified that Bulgargaz's price proposal, dated April 8, does not take into consideration the halting of deliveries from Gazprom-Export. After these supplies were suspended on April 26, offers were solicited from all active gas traders in the region, the offers were ranked and suppliers were selected, but the contracting procedure is not yet completed. This guarantees meeting the demand for natural gas of household and industrial users, district heating companies and gas traders next month.

The natural gas price approved by the EWRC for April includes quantities pumped from the Chiren Repository, but this pumping was halted on April 7 as Bulgargaz anticipated a cut off from Russia. As a result of this, the price estimated by the public supplier should be adjusted substantially upwards from the BGN 177/MWh price.

The final price of natural gas for May will be set at a closed-doors meeting of the regulator scheduled for May 10, said EWRC Chair Stanislav Todorov. Bulgargaz will submit its estimates on May 4.

Todorov expects natural gas prices in Bulgaria to level with those in Europe, where the fuel currently trades at a little under EUR 100/MWh on the exchanges. The EWRC head assumes that the price in this country will be slightly lower because of the discount at which Bulgargaz is purchasing large quantities.

The only long-term contract that is valid now is the one with Azerbaijan, but due to an annex signed in September 2021, the entire quantity contracted cannot be delivered, and it covers just 10 per cent of Bulgaria's consumption. The remaining 90 per cent will be bought at the current market prices in Europe, Todorov told the media after the end of the regulator's meeting.

The EWRC Chair specified that the BGN 177/MWh mentioned by Yotsov is the price at which Bulgargaz will most probably supply in April. 

The regulator set the price of natural gas, effective April 1, 2022, is BGN 142.59/MWh exclusive of the cost of access, transmission, excise duty and VAT.