Bulgarian Energy Minister: All Gas Sources are on the Table, including Gazprom

"All possible sources of gas supplies are on the table, including Gazprom, but they are the last option". This was stated by Energy Minister Rosen Hristov on BNT.

"We haven't started reaching out to them yet because we're looking to exhaust all possible options. It's a last resort, but we haven't taken them off the options list."

He commented on the protests against the renewal of negotiations with "Gazprom" and stated that he will not sign the declaration that the disaffected want.

"Bulgaria is a democratic country and everyone has the right to express an opinion and protest, which is very good. The bad thing is when these topics are used for political purposes - as many people protest in the square, tens of times more people ask me how they will heat their homes, the schools, the hospitals, the country. It is easy when a person receives a salary at the level of Sofia, to say that it is not a problem for him to pay more expensive gas, more expensive bread. When the average salary in the country is a few hundred BGN and most of it goes for paying household bills, it is not so easy for a person to say 'I don't care about the price'".

Hristov stated that Kiril Petkov's office "didn't stop talking with Gazprom" and commented that there was a file according to which "negotiations were conducted, letters were sent and a colossal amount was paid for legal advice to support these negotiations".

"The terms of payments, terms of delivery were discussed. They traveled to Brussels, discussed the EU's general policy regarding Gazprom - whether accounts can be opened in rubles or not, what the general policy is. The negotiations have stopped at one point, where Gazprom does not agree to any...