site.btaBulgaria Pays BGN 1.05 Mln Daily to BOTAS for Gas Transmission Capacity which Remains Largely Unused – Energy Minister

Bulgaria pays about BGN 1,050,000 daily to the Turkish state-owned energy company BOTAS for natural-gas transmission capacity, although it uses just a fraction of it, Bulgarian Energy Minister Zhecho Stankov told bTV on Wednesday. The payments are required under an agreement signed with BOTAS, he said. The minister noted that a few months ago the daily payment was approximately BGN 1,000,000, but it has been adjusted for inflation since the beginning of 2025. The price is expected to reach BGN 1.1 million per day in 2026 and BGN 1.2 million in 2027, Stankov said.

A parliamentary hearing on May 15 exposed deep political divides and growing concern over the long-term consequences of the 2023 agreement between BOTAS and Bulgargaz.

So far, Bulgaria has paid BGN 600 million under the agreement with BOTAS, although the capacity actually used has cost BGN 40 million, Stankov said in the televised interview. At some point, Bulgaria’s state-owned natural-gas company Bulgargaz stopped making such payments due to a shortage of financial resources and thus sank into debt, the Minister said.

Explaining Bulgaria’s failure to use the full capacity which it pays for, Stankov said that the country consumes approximately 3 billion cubic metres of natural gas annually, and 1 billion cu m of it is supplied from Azerbaijan. Besides, Bulgaria has an additional reserve capacity of more than 1 billion cu m thanks to a deal for the Alexandoupolis LNG terminal and the Greece-Bulgaria gas interconnector.

Stankov estimated that 2 billion cu m of the gas transmission capacity booked under the agreement with BOTAS remains unused. The price which Bulgaria pays to the Turkish company for gas transmission is USD 10 per MWh, almost three times the usual rate, he said.

Discussing the Balkan Stream gas pipeline running through Bulgaria as an extension of TurkStream, the Energy Minister said the Balkan Stream investment is BGN 2.6 billion, and Bulgaria expects to earn about BGN 20 billion in revenues throughout the whole life of the facility. Five years since the start of the project, revenues amount to BGN 1.9 billion. “BGN 20 billion will flow into the accounts of Bulgarian companies,” he said.

Taking a question about the Sofia district heating company, Toplofikacia Sofia, the minister was adamant that gas supplies to the company will not be interrupted despite its huge debt to Bulgargaz. Otherwise, heat subscribers will sustain damage. “We will not allow the price of heating to rise,” he pledged, noting that natural gas from Azerbaijan comes at a good price. Overall, Toplofikacia Sofia owes more than BGN 1 billion in overdue liabilities to companies connected to the Bulgarian Energy Holding. Last winter alone, the heating utility paid BGN 400 million less than it should have paid for the natural gas it received. Stankov has urged Sofia Mayor Vassil Terziev to make sure that the municipal authorities, which manage Toplofikacia, take concrete actions to settle the debt.

Stankov also gave his take on recent Energy Act amendments which indefinitely postponed the liberalization of the electricity market for household consumers. He commented: “Using this approach, we pulled the handbrake on inflation generated by high prices in our region. In this way, we guarantee to Bulgarian households that their bills will remain steady and predictable.”

As for non-household users, the government is negotiating with businesses for a differentiated approach to sharing the costs associated with high electricity prices on the free market. If the prices surpass a certain level, say BGN 220 per MWh, an automatic mechanism should be set off to curb inflation, Stankov said.