2024-04-12 01:48:44
The commission’s work on the contract with “Botash” has ended, and things look quite worrisome there. It turns out that every day the Bulgarian energy industry and “Bulgargaz” have to pay for capacity, which is equal to 500,000 dollars. This capacity is not used.
This was stated by Radoslav Ribarski from PP-DB, who is a member of the temporary commission in the parliament for the agreement between “Bulgargaz” and the Turkish company “Botash”.
He gave an example: for 2023, out of a possible 14 ships to be delivered, 1 and a half were used. This capacity, although we do not use it, we pay the fees every day for the full volume, which the caretaker government and the Minister of Energy Rosen Hristov have agreed upon, Ribarski explained.
The committee meets for 3 months and this is summarized in a report. It is ready and should be seen in theaters next week.
We will also invite the current Minister of Energy, Vladimir Malinov, as a direct participant in this negotiation, because this is a tripartite agreement between “Bulgargaz”, “Botash” and “Bulgartransgaz”. The three companies agree that Bulgaria will deliver natural gas to Turkish waters, which after this to be bought back at the Bulgarian border. It is not about the normal inter-system connectivity, which gives us greater flexibility in supplies. We, regardless of how many ships we deliver, have to pay for this capacity, Rybarski explained.
And he added: Half a million dollars a day is the fee that must be paid for this capacity. The other thing that is worrisome is that the agreed quantities are about 1.8 billion cubic meters per day. Of these, we physically, if we decide to use the entire capacity, can deliver only about 1.3 billion cubic meters. This difference of 500 million cubic meters, purely physically, cannot be fulfilled. And the state is obliged for 13 years under this contract to pay huge fees for capacity, while “Botash” uses the Bulgarian gas transmission network. The effect of this is a loss of market share for “Bulgargaz”, which last year lost 27% market share.
The proposal that we have recorded in the decision is that all the documentation and the report should go to the prosecutor’s office, DANS. We call for this contract to be renegotiated, Ribarski said. The current minister is Malinov, who participated in the initial negotiations. We expect that next week he will come to the hall during the discussion of the report to say what the possibilities are for the renegotiation of the contract. This contract is disadvantageous for Bulgaria and our country loses every day from it, added the MP from PP-DB.