Bulgaria: Ready to renegotiate with Gazprom

THE Bulgariaone of the first European countries to cut off Russian gas supplies in April, said today it was ready to renegotiate with the Russian company Gazpromas fears are expressed of shortages in the winter.

Bulgaria, where heavily dependent on Moscow to cover her energy needs, she refused to pay the natural gas in rubles and stepped up efforts to diversify its imgs of supply.

Acting Minister of Energy Rosen Hristoff stated today, in a press conference he gave as relayed by the Athens News Agency, that “are now inevitable” negotiations with Gazprom Export “to resume deliveries of the current contract” which expires at the end of December. As he explained, she is “the only solution” in order to keep business accounts at an acceptable level. Hristoff had earlier called on trade unions and employers to support this change of strategy.

“Negotiations with Gazprom will be difficult”

Negotiations with Gazprom will be difficult“, he warned, stressing that the continuation will depend on the next government that will emerge from the parliamentary elections in October.

Reacting to sanctions imposed by the European Union on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded that buyers of natural gas from “unfriendly” countries pay in roubles. Otherwise, he threatened to cut off their supply. The countries that did not obey, they saw the tap turned off: in addition to Bulgaria, so did Poland, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Latvia. In the other countries, flows were down by about 70% in July, on a year-on-year basis.

Source: News Beast

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