Bulgaria’s State Commission for Energy and Water Regulation (DKEVR) issued new directives for forming the price of natural gas in hope to lower it in the last quarter of 2010.

The information was reported Tuesday by the DKEVR Head, Angel Semerdzhiev.

On Monday, energy experts declared the price can go down by 16% in the next two years if the sources are diversified and Bulgaria gains access to the spot market.

The national gas supplier, Bulgarigaz, however, objected Tuesday to the new directives, saying they were not transparent enough and did not include changes in the decree for forming gas prices. They further point out gas reserves are not taken into account in forming these prices.

The new rules introduce an alternative way of calculating currency exchange rates. Bulgargaz has delayed revenues of BGN 78 M owed to them since the beginning of 2010, which were until now calculated as a difference between the DKEVR-determined expenditures and the real ones. Now they will be based on the difference between the company’s revenues and its expenses for the respective fiscal period.

Semerdzhiev says the amount of BGN 78 M is yet to be verified, adding there is a possibility it would not be taken into account in forming gas prices for October in order to not have a new price hike because the law does not set deadlines to include revenues yet to be received.

The DKEVR Head reassured he is monitoring the financial state of Bulgargaz closely in order to avoid a difficult situation. The company accounted for BGN 52 M in losses for the first half of the year.

The Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry appealed to DKEVR to explain how these losses occurred when in the first half of 2009, the company had BGN millions in profits and its revenues went down only by 16%.

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