site.btaNatural Gas Production Decreases by 15.7% in 2024 Y/Y, Supplies in Bulgaria Increase by 7.4%

Natural gas production decreased by 15.7% in 2024 compared to the previous year, while supplies in the country increased by 7.4%, show National Statistical Institute (NSI) preliminary data for 2024 on the production and supplies of fuels and energy in the country, published on the NSI website on Thursday. For individual energy products, changes were observed compared to the reported data for 2023.

In 2024, a significant decrease was observed in the production of local brown and lignite coal, by 28.5%, which make up 96.4% of the total production of solid fuels. Over the same period, their deliveries decreased by 21.7%.

Raw materials used in refineries for the production of petroleum products increased by 6.3% in 2024 compared to 2023, with crude oil accounting for the main share, 91.6%. An increase of 6.4%was also observed in the production of petroleum products. Deliveries of petroleum products in 2024 recorded an increase of 4.9%.

Gross electricity production also decreased compared to 2023, by 5.5%. The production of electricity from nuclear energy and coal continued to have a predominant share in 2024 (64.6%) despite the rapidly increasing share of electricity produced by power plants using solar energy (13.3%). At the same time, electricity supplies increased by 1.6% year on year.

Compared to the previous year, thermal energy saw an increase in gross production - by 1.9% and in supplies - by 1.8%.