Bulgaria will receive two shiploads of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US in June, confirmed Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov upon returning from his visit to the US. Bulgaria found itself in a dire situation after Russia recently decided to halt gas deliveries to the country.
“We have agreed on having two shiploads of LNG gas from the US in June at a price slightly below the Gazprom level,” Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov told reporters. He did not specify the price agreed but insisted that it would be far below the current market levels.
The arrangement was agreed at a meeting between Prime Minister Kiril Petkov and US Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington, the government said.
The Bulgarian Prime Minister revealed that negotiations on a long-term contract are in progress. “The price margin will probably be narrower for the two ships, but I hope that it will be a double-digit percentage in the long-term contract,” he pointed out, adding that the entire quantity will be far cheaper and that the quantities had been agreed specifically for Bulgaria.
“It is important to say that the contract will be concluded directly between the US company and Bulgaria, without intermediaries,” stressed the Prime Minister adding that the gas will reach Bulgaria’s gas transmission system probably from Greece or Turkey.
Gazprom cut off gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland at the end of April for refusing to pay in roubles. Bulgaria consumes about 3 billion cubic metres of gas per year, of which over 90 per cent was coming from Russia.
Bulgaria is also in talks with Azerbaijan to ramp up gas deliveries and is looking to agree on LNG deals via terminals in Greece and Turkey. It has also called for common EU gas purchases to make prices more competitive.
“We continue to wait for the quantity of gas from Azerbaijan and, apart from that, we are holding discussions with other countries, too. We’re not at all replacing one supplier with another but are choosing the lowest prices from among all suppliers,” underlined the Bulgarian Prime Minister.
This week the Bulgarian Prime Minister confirmed that the construction work on the Bulgaria-Greece gas link (IGB), which will carry gas from LNG terminals and Azeri pipeline gas to Bulgaria, will be completed by the end of June on both sides and the interconnector should become operational in July.
