CEO: Bulgargaz, Gazprom Shed Intermediaries in Gas Trade

Business » ENERGY | February 17, 2010, Wednesday // 17:20
Bulgaria: CEO: Bulgargaz, Gazprom Shed Intermediaries in Gas Trade Bulgargaz CEO Dimitar Gogov has made it clear that all intermediaries between Bulgaria and Gazprom would be eliminated. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria’s state gas monopoly Bulgargaz is going to start buying Russian natural gas directly from Gazprom.

This was announced Wednesday by Dimitar Gogov, CEO of Bulgargaz, who met Tuesday with the CEO of Gazprom, Alexei Miller, in Sofia.

Currently, Bulgaria gets Russian natural gas through three intermediaries - Overgas Inc, Wintershall, and Gazpromexport.

Gogov explained that Bulgaria was going to fulfill its contracts with them until they expired in 2011-2012 but that by the end of 2010 Bulgargaz was going to negotiate new gas supply contracts with Gazprom or its subsidiary Gazpromexport thus eliminating the other two companies.

“I don’t like to use the word “intermediaries”. But these traders will have to find other ways to stay on the market,” Gogov stated referring to Overgas Inc and Wintershall.

He also explained Bulgargaz and Gazprom had started talks about diversifying the routes through which Bulgaria could receive Russian gas.

Currently, all Russian natural gas export to Bulgaria is supplied through Ukraine and Romania. The new options that have been discussed by Gogov and Miller in Sofia include getting Russian gas directly through the South Stream gas pipeline whenever it is completed, and also receiving Russian gas through Turkey (even though currently Bulgaria is a transit state for some of the gas that Russia sells to Turkey).

The Bulgargaz CEO said these additional options had been requested by the Russian side which wanted to reduce its dependence on Ukraine for the gas transit.

On Tuesday, Bulgaria’s Economy Minister Traikov, who also met with Alexei Miller, explained that Gazprom had demonstrated understanding with regard to Bulgaria’s demand that Russian gas was sold directly from Gazprom to Bulgargaz without any intermediaries.

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Tags: Russia, Gazprom, Bulgargaz, Dimitar Gogov, natural gas, Overgas, Russian gas

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