Natural gas

"Bulgaria's refusal of the new gas payment system proposed by Russia will inevitably lead to higher prices for end-users". This was stated in an interview with TASS by Yuri Phillipson, director of the Fourth European Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Russian gas company Gazprom announced last week that it was reducing supplies through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline for technical reasons

The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the war that has been ongoing for four months now - triggering Western sanctions against Moscow and Vladimir Putin's games with natural gas and crude oil - creates complex economic conditions globally and especially in Europe, which has faced very serious repercussions.

The interruption, according to the same sources, is due to the annual scheduled maintenance of the Turk Stream pipeline

The Greece-Bulgaria gas interconnection (IGB) has started test gas supplies, the project company ICGB AD told Trend news agency.

"We have started test deliveries with real quantities of natural gas, as planned. However, this is not the beginning of commercial exploitation," the ICGB said.

The small, in length, but strategically important IGB pipeline, which connects the Bulgarian system with the Greek natural gas transmission system and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), will start commercial operation, next month, in July. Today (17 June) the pipeline will undergo final testing  with the introduction of the last quantities of 1.5 million cubic meters of gas.

Germany's race to wean itself off Russian energy and stockpile enough gas before winter is playing out largely hidden from view, some 1,600 meters below ground in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps.    

The former Bierwang natural gas field in Unterreit serves as one of Germany's largest underground gas storage facilities.  

"If the storage in Chiren is not 100% full and the gas connection with Greece does not work, there is a risk of gas supply to consumers and district heating". This was stated on BNT by the chairman of the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (EWRC) Stanislav Todorov. He also announced that a contract for the supply of American liquefied natural gas has not been signed yet.

In the first 100 days of the war in Ukraine, Russia earned 93 billion euros ($98 billion) from fossil fuel exports, most of which were shipped to the European Union, according to a published study.

The Energy and Water Regulatory Commission approved the price of natural gas, as of June 1, 2022, in the amount of BGN 141.36 / MWh (excluding prices for access, transmission, excise and VAT). At this price, Bulgargaz will sell natural gas to the final suppliers of natural gas and to persons who have been issued a license for production and transmission of heat.