Bulgaria Ex-Minister May Lose Immunity over Unfavorable Russian Gas Contract

Domestic | November 24, 2009, Tuesday

Ovcharov might become the third Stanishev cabinet Minister to face legal charges over his actions. Photo by BGNES

Bulgria’s former Minister of Economy and Energy, Rumen Ovcharov, stands a fair chance of losing his MP immunity over the unfavorable contract for the supply of Russian gas he made with Gazprom in 2006.

This has been announced by the Monitor Daily, which points out that Ovcharov is probably going to be the third former Minister from the Stanishev cabinet to be charged with violations.

Ovcharov is expected to be charged within two weeks over the amended contracts for Russian gas supplies from 2006.

The prosecutors suspect that Bulgaria might have lost over BGN 2 B in four years as a result to the arrangements that Ovcharov made with the Russians.

The signal against Rumen Ovcharov has been submitted by former rightist MP Maria Kapon.

It refers to the annex to the gas supplies contract signed between Bulgargaz and Gazprom in 2006 under which Bulgaria agreed to go from USD 83 per 1 000 cubic meters of natural gas to reach market prices through several hikes between April 2007 and December 2012.

Thus, Bulgargaz paid Gazprom over USD 651 M for 2007 and USD 1,1 B for 2008; if there had been no agreement, it would have paid only USD 588 M for 2007 and USD 866 M for 2008. Thus, according to Bulgaria’s acting Economy and Energy Minister, Traicho Traikov, Bulgaria paid additional USD 304,5 M in two years.

At the same time, Bulgaria’s revenue from the transit of Russian natural gas remains unchanged since the deal Ovcharov made with Gazprom in 2006 includes not transit fee increases.

Rumen Ovcharov is a MP from the Bulgarian Socialist Party, and its Deputy Chair. He was the Deputy PM and Minister of Energy and Economy in 2005-2007. He resigned in 2007 after public outrage over a scandal with abuses of public funds in the Sofia heating utility company Toplofikatsiya and went on to become the Chair of the Parliamentary Budget Committee in 2007-2009.

If Ovcharov is charged over the deal he made with the Russians, he will become the third Stanishev cabinet Minister to face legal action after former Agriculture Minister Valeri Tsvetanov and former Defense Minister Nikolay Tsonev.