Rosen Hristov

"Perhaps the negotiations with Gazprom are immoral and unpleasant, most likely Russia is not a reliable long-term partner, but we will continue our trade relations".

This was stated to BNT by the Deputy Prime Minister for the management of European funds, Atanas Pekanov.

"Things with the interconnector to Greece are under control, the whole country has been mobilized. A lot of time has been wasted, in which nothing has really been done," said at a briefing Hristo Alexiev, Acting Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Policies and Minister of Transport and Communications, Chairman of the Crisis Staff.

The government is renewing negotiations with Azerbaijan for an increase in gas supplies to Bulgaria, announced the Minister of Energy Rosen Hristov:

"We accepted Cheniere's offer for one vessel with gas for the month of October, for the month of November and December we could not find slots. The offer has been adjusted for delivery of one tanker in October to Turkey."

This was announced by Acting Energy Minister Rosen Hristov at an extraordinary briefing last night in connection with gas supplies for Bulgaria.

Azerbaijan, Turkey, Russia. Bulgaria will negotiate with companies from these countries, in this order, to ensure the necessary quantities of natural gas for the winter. This was announced by acting energy minister Rosen Hristov.

A decision on whether Bulgaria will negotiate with the Russian monopoly "Gazprom" can be expected in a week at the earliest.

Such negotiations will only take place if it turns out that Bulgaria will not be able to secure all the necessary quantities of gas for the winter, confirmed Energy Minister Rosen Hristov:

A Russian senator called on "Gazprom" to leave the Bulgarians out in the cold this winter.

In order to fill the liquidity hole in "Bulgargaz", loans will also be sought from private banks. This was announced by the Caretaker Minister of Energy, Rosen Hristov. Today, the government decided to grant an 800 million BGN loan from the company's budget, and expects it to pay it back as quickly as possible by taking loans from other institutions.

"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."

Workers at the construction site of the interconnected IGB gas transmission pipeline, starting at Komotini, Greece and ending at Stara Zagora, Bulgaria, March 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE/DIMITRIS TOSIDIS.

Issues have arisen over the certification of the project, which prompted interim Energy Minister Rosen Hristov, who is yet to publicly comment on the matter, to block the process.