Bulgaria: Natural Gas Price Set for Sharp Jump of 20%

Bulgaria's Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (EWRC) has endorsed a price of 45.27 leva/MWh for natural gas, effective June 1, 2021, the regulator said in a press release on Monday.

The new price, which excludes the charges for access, transmission, excise duty and VAT, is 20 per cent higher than its May 1 level (37.71 per cent) and 122 per cent up from June 1, 2020.

The Energy and Water Regulatory Commission specified that the new higher gas price will not result in increase in prices of heating and electricity in June.

The press release lists three reasons for the natural gas price rise:

• the ongoing increase of prices on international gas markets;
• the fact that Bulgargaz has had to purchase the amounts of gas it needs at spot prices from other suppliers because the TurkStream gas pipeline is being repaired in the territory of Turkey in June;
•  the smaller amounts of gas from Azerbaijan entering Bulgaria than those capable of being transmitted through the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) between Komotini and Stara Zagora, whose commissioning has been postponed for the middle of next year.