site.btaPM Radev on BOTAS Gas Supply Deal Suspension: We Have Offered Turkiye Mutually Beneficial Partnership

Turkiye has been offered a most mutually beneficial partnership, said Prime Minister Rumen Radev to journalists on Friday in connection with the freezing of the contract with BOTAS. "I cannot reveal specific parameters because it is a matter of confidentiality between two commercial companies. I can only say that in addition to these 15 months of freezing, this protocol [signed recently between Bulgaria and Turkiye] indicates a very significant reduction in the price for regasification and transmission from BOTAS, thus the route from Turkiye through Bulgaria becomes very competitive", Radev added. In his words, there is a huge opportunity for gas imports both through Greece and Turkey, in both cases these flows pass through Bulgaria.

Repeating what has been said previously, Radev said that EUR 360 million accumulated debts from Bulgargaz to BOTAS have not been paid for more than two years. He added that the protocol includes a mechanism for settling them without burdening the state budget.

According to him, the opposition and the previous governments did nothing for development or use of this contract. "In one night, they suspended the contract with Gazprom, leaving the country without gas. Then the contract with BOTAS was signed, because there really was no gas, but after they took power again, they returned the scheme for importing Russian gas through Russian intermediaries, which is even more expensive", said Radev.

The PM said that the contract had been turned into a political weapon against him, instead of being used for supplies for the domestic market and for transit to other countries.

The agreement in question was signed on January 3, 2023. Under the contract, the Bulgarian side booked capacity of 106.4GWh/day on the Turkish LNG regasification terminals and agreed to pay for this BGN 1 million (EUR 512,000) daily for a period ending in 2035. At present, Bulgargaz does not import gas under the agreement with BOTAS, and in early May its arrears to the Turkish company approximated BGN 300 million. If the 13-year take-or-pay agreement is rescinded, the Bulgarian company will be liable for close to BGN 3 billion in damages. By a resolution passed on April 19, 2024, the Bulgarian National Assembly assigned then-energy minister Vladimir Malinov to take action for re-negotiating the agreement.