Bulgargaz's revenue from the sale of natural gas slumped by 53% on the year to 1.88 billion levs in the review period, due to a decline in both the price of natural gas and volumes sold, according to figures from the company's interim financial statement published by parent company Bulgarian Energy Holding.
The nine-month loss is mainly due to impairments of natural gas injected and available at the Chiren underground storage in the first six months as well as from accrued losses from trade receivables, Bulgargaz said.
Bulgargaz sold 17,763,171 MWh of natural gas in the first nine months of this year, which was just over 30% less than in the same period of 2022. Deliveries grew by 20% on the year to 18,196,504 MW. The volumes injected in the country's sole underground storage Chiren amounted to 3,371,301 MWh as of end-September, which was 27% more than at the same time last year.
Cost of natural gas sold, which make up the bulk of company expenditure, dropped to 1.8 billion levs as at end-September from 3.96 billion levs a year ago.
Following a tender procedure for the deliveries of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in 2023, Bulgargaz signed contracts with Kolmar, Mythilineos, DEPA, Cheniere, Shell and MET International, the statement showed further. LNG deliveries are received at the Greek terminal at Revithoussa and at terminals in Turkey under Bulgargaz's existing contract with peer Botas. The public supplier also receives Caspian gas from Azerbaijan through the Greece-Bulgaria interconnector.
In the nine months through September, Bulgargaz purchased 8,015,038 MWh of pipeline gas, which was 41.2% less than the volumes purchased in the same period of 2022. By contrast, purchased LNG quantities jumped 132.5% on the year to 10,094,578 MWh.
Bulgargaz also said it is in negotiations to finalise a ten-year delivery contract with the winning bidder of a public tender which was carried out in the middle of this year.
