site.btaBulgarian PM Borissov Sees Anti-government Conspiracy in Overgas Critical Situation

Bulgarian PM Borissov Sees Anti-government Conspiracy in Overgas Critical Situation

Sofia, January 4 (BTA) - Interviewed on bTV on Monday morning, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov described the critical situation with natural gas supply to household suppliers in this country, for which he blamed intermediary Overgas, as an anti-government conspiracy which could have disrupted the entire national electricity system and could have brought hundreds of thousands of protestors to the streets.

Shortly before the New Year, the State-owned Bulgartransgaz company received a copy of a letter from Gazprom Export to Overgas, stating "zero" in the column on supplies for the Bulgarian intermediary, which could mean that the nearly 200,000 Bulgarian households supplied by the private company would be literally left in the cold in sub-zero temperatures.

"Russia and Gazprom are absolutely not to blame," Borissov said. He specified that Gazprom warned Bulgaria, through the Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) and Bulgargaz, that one of this country's principal distributors to households, Overgas, was not placing orders. At 6:30 p.m. on December 31, Overgas Networks sent Bulgargaz a letter asking them to take over the supplies. "The question is why they put us in a tight corner, making us draft contracts at 8 p.m. on December 31? It was them who came to ask us to do it, not us," the Prime Minister said. "Any company may have a problem, they simply should have said it several days earlier," he argued.

He described as "impudent" Overgas's comments that there is a plan to steal their business, considering that they said they were unable to cope with their task at 6:30 p.m. on December 31. As he put it, those who talked about a stealing of the company's business were the same who selectively hiked the electricity price of 20 per cent of household customers and issued them 40-day bills. He was all the more perplexed, considering the "normal relationship" he has had so far with Overgas owner Sasho Donchev.

In his opinion, if the Government did not react promptly to the early warnings of a problem, all households using natural gas for heating would have been left without supply and would have switched to electricity, which would have brought down the national power grid. The other option was to use the Russian gas transited across Bulgaria in excess of the country's quota, which would cost a 10 per cent surcharge.

Borissov said that the gas executives in St Petersburg "showed understanding" of the emergency situation.

Asked to comment on the news that a photo of Russian President Vladimir Putin with a puppy that Borissov gave him as a gift in 2010 appeared on a 2016 calendar, the Prime Minister said he sees this as a sign "that he loves us."