Bulgaria lowers November gas prices after Gazprom deal
Bulgaria's wholesale natural gas price will decrease in November after state gas provider Bulgargaz settled a dispute with Russia's Gazprom and agreed additional gas deliveries at a lower cost, officials said.
Bulgargaz initially planned another 32% increase in gas prices from November. Gas prices in Bulgaria jumped by 36% in October, in line with high gas prices in Europe that have pushed up fuel bills and added to inflationary pressures. After the agreement with Gazrpom, Bulgaria's energy regulator approved on Monday a 1.4% decrease in the wholesale gas price to 93.2 levs ($55.22) per MW hour in November, interim Labour Minister Galab Donev said.
"I have good news. Bulgaria will now have one of the lowest gas prices in Europe," Donev said.
Energy regulator head Ivan Ivanov said the price for Bulgarian gas consumers, mainly industrial firms and heating utilities, would be about two times lower when compared to prices on European gas hubs and would save them about $40 million. Bulgargaz's CEO Nikolay Pavlov declined to reveal the nature of the dispute that was settled, citing confidentiality agreements. He also said he expected Bulgaria would make another small decrease in natural gas prices in December.
"We have solved a dispute with Gazprom and, as a result Bulgargaz has the right to receive in November additional gas deliveries at a significantly lower price," Pavlov said.
Bulgaria imports about 3 Bm3 of gas per year, most of which coming from Gazprom.
Reporting by Tsvetelia Tsolova Editing by Mark Potter
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