August 18 (SeeNews) - US company Cheniere Energy rejected Bulgaria's request to postpone by two weeks the finalisation of a binding offer for the delivery of liquefied natural gas (LNG), caretaker energy minister Rossen Hristov said on Thursday.
The deadline for signing the contract is August 19.
Bulgaria is now looking for alternative options to boost its gas supply, with interest registered from Turkish suppliers, Hristov said according to a statement issued by the energy ministry's press office.
Bulgargaz has received offers for gas deliveries for September at favourable terms and negotiations are starting for increasing the volume of deliveries from Azerbaijan, the minister noted, adding that talks with major suppliers should conclude by the end of August.
"Our goal is to provide natural gas to cover 120-150% of our needs and to be able to transfer quantities from one contract to another. This will minimise the risk of both geopolitical and technical shocks," Hristov noted.
The commissioning of the Greece-Bulgaria gas link is essential to ensuring that gas deliveries can be increased from Azerbaijan's state-owned company SOCAR, which currently has a contract to deliver 1 billion cubic metres (bcm). Earlier on Thursday, project company ICGB announced that the interconnector has been linked up to Bulgaria's gas grid and the flow of gas through the pipeline, which has a capacity of 3 bcm, is now technically ensured.
IGB's commissioning is set for October 1, with administrative permits required for its operation expected to be issued around the middle of September, according to the ministry's statement.
Bulgaria requested an extension of the offer from Cheniere last week, so as to secure slots for offloading the LNG tankers at the Revithoussa terminal in Greece, Hristov told local media at the time.
The binding offer of Cheniere, agreed by the former coalition government, is for seven LNG tankers, three of which are to be delivered by end-2022, with the first one due to be offloaded in October.