Natural gas prices in Bulgaria will go up in the summer of 2010 although it is unclear yet by how much, according to the chair of the responsible state regulator.

“There will be definitely an increase of natural gas prices in the third quarter, we just have to figure out yet the precise amount of the hike. Luckily, the summer is coming up so the gas price increase will not affect the heating prices immediately,” explained Angel Semerdzhiev, Chair of the State Commission for Energy and Water Regulation (DKEVR), citing documents and estimates that he received from Bulgarian state natural gas monopoly Bulgargaz.

Last week Semerdzhiev announced he expected the gas price to go up by 10-15% as of July 1, 2010. However, on Thursday he clarified that this forecast had not factored in the recent collapse of the exchange rate of the euro, which hit a four-year low against the dollar earlier in the week.

“We are buying the natural gas in US dollars, so this is invariably going to have an effect on the coming gas price increase,” stated the head of DKEVR.

Another factor that might affect the hike is the debts Bulgargaz failed to collect in the first quarter of 2010 even though, according to Semerdzhiev, the sum is not significant.

Furthermore, the Bulgarian state gas company has got to figure out how much natural gas will be needed to fill in the national reserves at the Chiren Storage Facility, which usually gets refilled in the third quarter of every year. This will necessitate the procurement of additional amounts of natural gas in order to provide for the winter period.

“The state gas company Bulgargaz is probably delaying their announcement of a proposed natural gas hike starting July 1 because it is seeking ways to avoid shocking the Bulgarian society,” Semerdzhiev ventured a guess.

Last week the head of the Sofia heating utility, Toplofikatsiya, Petko Milevski, predicted that the heating prices in the Bulgarian capital will go up by 12% if the natural gas price is increased by 10% to 15%.