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If we manage to complete and complete all the negotiations with the companies that are currently interested, I expect the price of gas to drop by another 10 percent in November.

This was commented today in Varna by the Acting Minister of Energy Rosen Hristov

Rosen Hristov has a master's degree in international economic relations from the University of California, who was a guest at the opening of the school year at the "Vasil Levski" Vocational High School for Construction, Architecture and Geodesy in the coastal city, BTA reported.

He added that the trend is to reduce gas prices and the government's efforts are already yielding results.

"If you compare the prices for September, which were agreed upon by the previous government, and for October, supplies which we have agreed on, the difference is significant - we are talking about a 30 percent reduction," said Hirstov. 

The negotiations with "Gazprom" are not a closed page, they have not been, and there is no significant progress at the moment, he also commented.

And he added that the government is focusing on diversification, i.e.

"Gazprom", if it is there - well, if it is not - we will be fine without them.

Hristov said that the idea is to secure gas in quantities much larger than we need, with the possibility of switching from one source to another.

According to him, this means receiving gas from different sources – liquefied through the terminals in Turkey and Greece, pipeline gas from Azerbaijan and Turkey. 

We are working on new deposits, but it is not about shale gas, no such deposits have been discovered in Bulgaria and we have no intention of developing such technologies and extraction, it is about conventional gas, commented the minister in response to a question.

He pointed out that for the moment, at least in the short term, he does not see the possibility of supplying gas from our own sources, either from the sea or on land.

The filling rate of the gas storage "Chiren" until last week was over 60 percent, we have met our intermediate goal for September, we continue to fill so as to reach 80 percent, as scheduled for October.

Asked about the unified strategy for limiting electricity consumption, the minister pointed out that a number of directions and concepts related to stabilizing the gas and electricity market were discussed last week in Brussels.

One of them was taking measures to limit electricity consumption, mostly it was a question of consumption during peak hours, which in Europe forces the inclusion at a certain moment of power plants - low-efficiency production or coal, said Hristov.

The estimated gas price for November is clear

According to him, this is not necessary in our country, as our consumption is stable and we are producing at maximum capacity at the moment, because we export electricity.

When we have a peak load, we use this energy for internal needs, and in off-peak hours - we continue to operate at high capacities so that we can export electricity to neighboring countries and ensure energy security for the entire region, he explained. 

Regarding the measures of the EC, we said that we support the directions and we clearly stated that we will come out with a position only after we receive the specific measures with the specific analyses, the minister also said.

He added that our country is in favor of saving electricity in general, as long as the measures are not mandatory, are not ones that we cannot fulfill, are not economically profitable for us, or in some way violate our energy security strategy.

Hristov also added that no current regime or the introduction of any serious restrictions is expected in the winter. 

Rosen Hristov

Ministry of Energy

natural gas

gas prices