Bulgarian caretaker Minister of Economy Nikola Stoyanov said in an interview that Bulgaria is doing pretty well in terms of managing energy crisis, especially regarding compensations for high electricity prices for businesses. According to him, natural gas price compensations will not be necessary after all, because the market prices will be far lower than ceiling prices set by businesses.
He said that tenders for gas supply until the end of 2023, which gas supplier Bulgargaz recently launched, are expected to produce very competitive prices, so basically the crisis in the gas supply sector due to the cut of Russian supply has gone. There is also inflow of cheaper Azerbaijani gas at full quantities following the commissioning of gas interconnection with Greece.
At the beginning of April, Russian Gazprom unilaterally demanded that payments by unfriendly nations, i.e. those which supported sanctions against Russia, be made in rubles, rather than in euros or dollars as stipulated in their contracts. As of 27 April, Gazprom has halted gas deliveries to Bulgaria as it has not accepted the Russian demand to pay in rubles.
