Natural gas

The PM said Russia was weaponising natural gas

"The estimated price of natural gas will be around BGN 350 (EUR 179), which is an increase of around 17 percent compared to the price for August," said Denitsa Zlateva, executive director of Bulgargaz, after the meeting of the Commission for Energy and Water Regulation.

According to her, this is due to the increased stock market index.

Belgium's energy minister has warned that EU countries will face "five to ten" "terrible" winters if nothing is done to reduce natural gas prices.

Calls are mounting for an EU-wide cap on the price of gas and its decoupling from the price of electricity.

In June, Bulgaria exported almost half of the electricity produced in the country. This is what new data from the National Statistical Institute (NSI) indicate.

In June, 4.03 terawatt hours of electricity were produced in the country, which is an increase of 25% on an annual basis.

The stock price of gas on the ICE Futures site has fallen almost 20% so far, according to trading data. The price of September futures at the TTF hub in the Netherlands, which determines the pricing of the continent, as of 12:30 p.m. fell by 18.7%, reaching €275.8 for 1 MWh, or 83.83 per thousand cubic meters.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine more than 6 months ago has caused a dramatic spike in natural gas prices and caused repeated energy shocks in Europe. The EU has accused Moscow of using energy as a weapon, while Russia denies this and blames western sanctions for the drop in exports.

The caretaker government does not intend to negotiate a new short-term, medium-term or long-term contract with Gazprom, but only to obtain quantities under the existing contract.

The price of natural gas on the Dutch exchange TTF reached 341 euros per megawatt hour yesterday, and electricity supply contracts in Germany and France broke all records. Against this background, the Czech Presidency of the European Union announced that it is preparing an extraordinary meeting of energy ministers.

"Kronos", "Glaucus", "Aphrodite", "Calypso" are planets, gods and muses, but also plots with trillions of cubic meters of natural gas in the Cypriot EEZ.

Preliminary estimates indicate about 2.5 TCF of gas in place