Natural gas prices

Turkey's daily natural gas consumption reached a historic record high at 245 million cubic meters on Jan. 8, the energy minister said on Jan. 9.

The draft of the Emergency Ordinance (OUG) providing for a set of measures among which the capping of the natural gas price is a proposal assumed by the Romanian Government to protect the population against possible price raises of the natural gas above the population's affordability, a release by the Ministry of Energy sent to AGERPRES reads.

Turkish state-run pipeline operator Botaş has raised natural gas prices by 9 percent for residential users and 18.5 percent for industrial users, energy sector sources said on Oct. 1.

The Working Group of the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission proposes to increase its natural gas price by 13.89% from 1 October. Unlike before, the experts' analyzes have confirmed Bulgargaz's request for price increase, which was introduced on September 10th.

The Government's intention of capping gas prices is a communist practice up to a point, but necessary, because on this market there is no competition, and companies raise prices as they please, said Thursday, Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici, present at the White Book of SMEs launch conference.

Natural gas prices will increase from July 1 with 10.8%, energy regulator KEVR reported, quoted by bTV.

Preliminary estimates show that this will lead to an average of 7% more expensive central heating and hot water from next month.

Because of the rise in natural gas prices, it is not excluded that the price of electricity may increase by more than initially projected 2%.

''There has been a steady downward trend in the world oil prices over the past month, but it still can not affect the price of gas in Bulgaria and get it lowered'', the chair of the Energy and Water Regulaory Commission Ivan Ivanov said on 27th of June after an open meeting of the regulator which discussed the increase in the price of natural gas by nearly 2% as of 1st of July, BNT reported. 

''Power engineering should not be used for political purposes. The natural gas price in Bulgaria is fully determined by market factors.

Greece's Public Gas Corporation (DEPA) has asked its suppliers for increased quantities of liquefied natural gas in response to the growth in demand for the commodity in the local market and the reduction in the flow of gas from the country's northern borders.

Turkey's daily natural gas consumption has risen to more than 200 million cubic meters due to increased household demand stemming from cold weather and is thus outstripping supply, energy industry sources said Dec. 22.