The Bulgarian government has notified the CEO of Russian energy giant Alexei Miller of its demand that the fees for the transit of natural gas through Bulgarian territory.

This was announced by Bulgaria’s Minister of Economy, Energy, and Tourism, Traicho Traikov, after Alexei Miller arrived on a surprised visit in Sofia and met with Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and later with President Georgi Parvanov.

According to Traikov, the question about increasing the fees for the transit of Russian gas through Bulgaria was raised during the meeting between Borisov and Miller.

“The transit fees are very low, they are among the lowest in Europe but it has been like this since the contracts for supplies and transit of Russian natural gas were signed in 1999,” Traukov said as cited by the Dnevnik Daily.

Gazprom currently pays Bulgaria USD 1,7 for the transit of 1 000 cubic meters of gas through 100 km of Bulgarian territory.

Traikov explained further that the Russian company had demonstrated understanding with regard to Bulgaria’s demand that Russian gas was sold directly from Gazprom to Bulgargaz without any intermediaries. This question was first raised during the January 2009 gas crisis between Russia and Ukraine.

However, Traikov has made it clear that Bulgaria and Russia were currently not holding any negotiations on that issue.

Currently, the Gazprom supplies to the Bulgarian state monopoly Bulgargaz go through three other companies – Overgas Inc, Wintershall, and Gazpromexport.

The Bulgarian Minister has revealed that, in addition to the intermediary issue, another question which was discussed during the meeting between Borisov and the Gazprom CEO was the possibility of allowing Bulgargaz re-export Russian natural gas to third countries.

Traikov also hinted that the Bulgarian government had told the Russian company CEO that proceeding with the talks of the South Stream gas transit pipeline would depend on reviewing the currently existing gas supply and transit contracts between Bulgaria and Russia.