Bulgaria notified Gazprom of its readiness to start negotiations on supplies

MOSCOW, 26 Aug — PRIME. Bulgaria is ready to resume negotiations with Gazprom on gas supplies and expects a response from it in the near future, Energy Minister Rosen Hristov said.

“There are no active negotiations with Gazprom yet, but the interim government has sent a notice of readiness to resume negotiations,” he said on the Nova TV channel. The Minister specified that Bulgaria expects a response from the Russian company on Friday or Monday.

“We made it clear that we want to start negotiations, or rather continue them, in order to clarify some of the controversial terms of the contract. We simply sent information that we were ready for negotiations and asked them to renew the contract,” he added.

Among the proposals of the official cabinet is the extension of the deadline for receiving the remaining volumes of gas. “We can’t use up the volumes of gas under this contract,” the minister said. Bulgaria, he said, intends to offer Gazprom to extend the gas withdrawal period under the contract expiring this year for 2023.

At the same time, Hristov specified that there would be no negotiations on signing a new contract.

The situation with gas in Bulgaria escalated at the end of April, when Gazprom stopped deliveries to the country due to non-payment in rubles under the new scheme.