Bulgarian caretaker Minister of Energy Rossen Hristov said that the country is negotiating to book 1 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas (LNG) capacity in Turkey, including transit capacity to the Bulgarian border. He stressed the urgency of this deal, because Bulgaria no longer has problems with obtaining LNG, but now it has no place to unload it.
He said that the Greek Revythoussa terminal is too busy and it is very hard to reserve capacity there. One solution is to reserve capacity on the future Greek in Alexandroupoli. One billion cubic meters of natural gas have been booked since 2024 but another billion is needed to secure deliveries for Bulgaria and this is possible only in Turkey. Bulgaria’s annual natural gas consumption is little over 3 billion cubic meters.
Minister Hristov said that deliveries for 2023 have already been secured by capacities in Revythoussa and at the end of 2023 capacities can be reserved in Turkey for 2024. Turkey said that the natural gas can be unloaded at any of the terminals in the country.
He added that state-owned supplier Bulgargaz will conclude separate deals with LNG suppliers in order to secure non-Russian gas supplies.
