Fearing a price dispute between Moscow and Kiev may lead to disruptions in Russian gas deliveries via Ukraine, Bulgaria is preparing to avert a gas crisis in winter months.

According to Bulgaria’s caretaker deputy premier for economic policy Ekaterina Zaharieva, the Russian gas supplies are highly likely to be affected by tensions between Moscow and Kiev prompted by a dispute over prices.

Zaharieva told reporters in Sofia on Wednesday that the cabinet is concerned that the dispute, which hasn’t been resolved yet, may lead to a repeat of the crisis of January 2009, when Russia halted gas deliveries to Europe via Ukraine for two weeks. Bulgaria was among the EU countries worst hit by the stoppage.

The European Union, Russia and Ukraine are expected to resolve the price issue at a trilateral meeting but yet another delay to those talks has fuelled concerns that a new gas supply crisis is looming. Bulgaria, which relies almost entirely on Russian supplies to meet its gas needs, takes delivery of those supplies only through a pipeline via Ukraine.

Bulgarian heating utilities have already been warned to test their capabilities to switch over to heavy fuel oil from gas and talks are underway with Greece for delivering additional volumes of gas to Bulgaria via a reverse flow interconnection, Zaharieva said.

Bulgaria’s sole underground gas storage facility at Chiren is more than 80% full but the problem is that the country produces just 5% of the gas it consumes and relies heavily on supplies from Russia to replenish its stocks in preparation for increased consumption in winter months.

As of September 15, 454 million cubic metres of gas have been stored at Chiren, leaving 96 million cubic metres of free capacity, according to data from storage operator Bulgartransgaz.

Even with Chiren full to the brim, its 550 million cubic metres of gas can only cover consumption for 60 to 100 days depending on weather conditions during winter months.

Currently Bulgatransgaz keeps pumping gas into Chiren but cannot step up the rate of filling as most if its funds are blocked in Corporate Commercial Bank (KTB) which has been closed since June, awaiting a full audit of its books ordered by the central bank to be completed, mediapool.bg said.

According to sources from state-run Bulgarian Energy Holding (the owner of Bulgartransgaz), BEH is expected to approve a loan to the gas transport company to enable it to fill Chiren to 100% capacity, the media outlet said.