Bulgargaz CEO Says Shortages Will Not Happen

CEO of Bulgargaz Dimitar Gogov has said that there will be no risk of gas shortages in 2013, despite comments by his colleague Alexander Petrov yesterday who said otherwise.

Speaking to Bulgarian radio station Darik radio yesterday, head of corporate relations for Bulgargaz Alexander Petrov had said that the country's stored gas could be seriously depleted this winter leaving it as risk of shortages in 2013. Currently Bulgaria holds about 380 million cubic metres of gas in its Chiren underground storage facility. This winter that amount would be depleted to about 170 million cubic metres, the executive said, opening up Bulgaria to gas shortages. 

This potential shortage could be exacerbated if a deal was not reached with major supplier Gazprom by mid-November, Mr. Petrov warned.

However, yesterday evening, Bulgargaz CEO Dimitar Gogov said that there would be no shortages of gas and that a contract had not yet been signed with Gazprom in order to better negotiate the terms of a future deal.

"We decided this year that we would not exceed the volume for two reasons," the Sofia News Agency (Noinvite) reported him as saying. "One is the lack of fresh money to buy larger quantities of gas.

"The second reason, which is more important, is that we are fighting for better terms of the new gas supply contract. If this contract is signed there is no economic logic to justify injecting more gas at one of the most expensive rates. This would only place an extra burden during the following pricing periods."