December 30 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian public gas supplier Bulgargaz will start receiving Russian natural gas via Turkey as of January 1, replacing the existing delivery route via Romania and Ukraine, the Bulgarian energy ministry said on Monday.
Bulgaria will get the gas from Russia via Gazprom's TurkStream pipeline at Strandzha entry point, on the border with Turkey, instead of the entry point at Romania's Negru Voda used at present, energy minister Temenuzhka Petkova said in a press release.
The change in the supply route is expected to result in a drop of some 5% in natural gas prices for Bulgarian consumers on an annual basis, as Bulgaria will not have to pay 76 million levs ($43.5 million/38.8 million euro) in transit fees to Romania, Petkova explained.
Bulgargaz is forecast to save some 4.6 million levs in business year 2019/2020 due to the lower transit fees at Strandzha entry point.
Bulgaria currently imports almost all of the natural gas it needs from Russia via a pipeline crossing Ukraine and Romania.
Earlier this month, Bulgargaz proposed a 1.94% cut in the wholesale price of natural gas to 43.98 levs per MWh, excluding VAT and excise duty, to be valid in the first quarter of 2020.
The offshore section of the TurkStream pipeline stretching 930 km across the Black Sea from Russia to Turkey consists of two parallel strings with annual throughput capacity of 15.75 billion cubic metres of gas each. One string is intended for consumers in Turkey, while the second is intended to carry gas to customers in Europe via Bulgaria.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)
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