January 31 (SeeNews) - The Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH), which pools state-owned energy companies, late on Friday said it replaced the management of public natural gas supplier Bulgargaz.
"In line with the policies for transparent and highly professional management of the energy companies, and taking into account suspicions that certain actions are undermining the reputation of the companies within the BEH group, the board of directors of the holding company decided to replace the management of Bulgargaz. The changes will take effect upon their official entry in the trade register," BEH said in a statement on its website without elaborating.
Wholesale prices of natural gas on the Bulgarian market added 30% in January, reaching 133.41 levs ($76/68.2 euro) per MWh.
Earlier in January, Bulgaria's police launched a probe into Bulgargaz's pricing policy and trading activities, after finance minister Assen Vassilev said that Bulgargaz has been drawing cheap gas from the Chiren gas storage in order to export it at a higher price abroad. The results of the probe have not yet been disclosed.
For its part, Bulgargaz said the decision to dismiss its management is politically motivated and the recent hike in gas prices is entirely due to external reasons.
"The Bulgargaz board of directors has been publicly criticised for taking 'wrong or ill-advised decisions', which have led to the country receiving smaller amounts of Azeri gas. It has been implied that for this reason gas prices for Bulgarian consumers are high. These claims do not rest on factual grounds," Bulgargaz said in a statement published on its website on Friday.
It added that the reason Bulgaria is unable to receive the full amount of gas supplies it has agreed with Azerbaijan is that the construction of the Greece-Bulgaria gas link, connecting Komotini in Greece with Stara Zagora in Bulgaria, has still not been completed.
The 220 million euro ($246 million) gas link was supposed to be completed at the end of 2020. Through the interconnection, Bulgaria will be able to receive cheaper gas from Azerbaijan, diversifying its imports from Russia. Its projected capacity will be to 3 billion cu m per year in the direction from Greece to Bulgaria, which can subsequently be increased to 5 billion cu m.
In December, Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said at a meeting with his Bulgarian counterpart Kiril Petkov that the completion of the Greece-Bulgaria gas interconnection is a matter of months.
The construction of some 100 km of the gas link's total length of 182 km is fully completed, public broadcaster BNT said at the time.
Bulgaria will be able to cover up to 33% of its total gas demand through Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) after the completion of the Greece-Bulgaria gas link, the TAP project company has said.
Since the beginning of 2021, TAP has been transporting gas from Azerbaijan to Greece, Bulgaria and Italy. Connecting with the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) at Greece's border with Turkey, TAP stretches across northern Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea before reaching Italy's coast. TAP, which can carry 10 billion cubic metres of new natural gas supplies per year from the Shah Deniz field in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea to markets in Europe, is part of the Southern Gas Corridor, which also comprises the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) crossing Azerbaijan and Georgia, and TANAP.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)
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