August 15 (SeeNews) - Public natural gas supplier Bulgargaz purchased in an auction all additional quantities of natgas that it had sought for September, or 11,300 MWh per day, trading platform Balkan Gas Hub (BGH) said.
A total of 43 traders licensed on the hub took part in the auction amid exceptional interest and a dynamic bidding process, BGH said in a statement on Friday, without providing further details.
The auction for the required quantities was successful and a very good price was achieved, caretaker energy minister Rossen Hristov said as seen in a video file published by local news website Dnevnik.
Bulgaria is expected to start receiving commercial quantities of natural gas through the Greece-Bulgaria interconnector in October 1, the energy minister added.
Bulgargaz launched the auction at a starting price of 380 levs ($198.93/194.29 euro) per MWh, according to an open letter to the president published on Friday by the Association of Bulgarian Employer Organisations which protested the potentially high price of gas for September.
Earlier last week, the public gas supplier also announced an auction, to be held on Tuesday, for additional natural gas deliveries for the final quarter of the year. Bulgargaz is calling for up to 42,000 MWh per day for October, up to 61,000 MWh per day for November and up to 72,000 MWh per day for December, to be supplied to the Bulgarian virtual trading point (VTP) with quantities varying up to 20% more or less on a daily basis.
The current caretaker government is looking to plug a gap in the country's gas supply left after Russia's Gazprom cut off deliveries to Bulgaria in late April over the previous government's refusal to accept Moscow's demand to pay in rubles in a breach of a valid long-term supply contract expiring in December 2022.
Last week, Bulgargaz forecast a wholesale natural gas price of 269.29 levs ($142.36/137.68 euro) per MWh in Bulgaria for October, which is about 10% less than the price of 297.89 levs per MWh for August, which the state energy regulator approved on Friday.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)
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