August 17 (SeeNews) - State-owned gas grid operator Bulgartransgaz said that it is taking steps to step up the process of filling Bulgaria's sole natural gas storage facility in Chiren so as to better guarantee the security of supplies in preparation for the upcoming winter.
As of this week, there will be four additional storage capacity auctions within the current month, alongside the existing auctions for storage capacity conducted on the Regional Booking Platform (RBP) prior to the storage month, Bulgartransgaz said in a statement on Tuesday.
Additional auctions will be held every Thursday of the current month for which they are intended, at the monthly storage capacity price, according to the statement. The auctions for this month will be held at 1.00 pm on August 18 and August 25.
In addition, in connection with an earlier Bulgartransgaz proposal approved by Bulgaria's energy regulator in June, the company will stimulate natural gas storage by setting zero access prices as of October 1 for the entry and exit points from and to the facility in the 2022-2023 year.
"Regarding the above, we inform the current and potential participants on the gas market in Bulgaria that as of October 1, auctions for transmission capacity to entry-exit point Chiren UGS will no longer be conducted, and the entry capacity will be allocated based on the allocated withdrawal capacity, and the exit capacity will be allocated based on the allocated injection capacity," Bulgartransgaz noted.
In late July, the former energy regulator chairman Stanislav Todorov told public broadcaster BNT that Chiren is 42% full.
Under EU regulations adopted for all member states earlier this year to improve energy security in the context of the war in Ukraine, Bulgaria must ensure that its gas storage facility is 80% full before the coming winter.
Last week, Bulgartransgaz relaunched three tenders worth a total estimated 517.7 million levs ($269.4 million/264.7 million euro) for the planned doubling of Chiren's capacity, which is currently 550 million cubic meters.
Bulgaria, which has traditionally been almost entirely reliant on Russian gas, has not received any deliveries from Gazprom since the Russian company unilaterally suspended it in late April. Bulgaria's long-term contract with Russia's Gazprom will expire in December 2022.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)