Gazprom Increases Gas Transit Through Bulgaria

Bulgaria will enter the European Union on January 1 with guaranteed supplies of Russian gas through 2030, Kommersant reported.

In exchange for a very slow transition to market pricing, Bulgaria agreed to give up a barter plan for settling transit accounts. In the first quarter of next year, Bulgaria will receive natural gas for $91 per 1000 cu. m.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev signed a package of documents during Gazprom head Alexey Miller's visit to his country.

They included documents concerning Russian-Bulgarian gas relations and transit of gas to Turkey, Greece and Macedonia.

The contracts on gas delivery and transit that were to expire in 2010 were extended to 2030 and, mostly importantly for Gazprom, Bulgaria will not settle transit accounts on a barter basis. The volume of transit gas is due to increase from 12 billion cu. m. this year to 17.8 billion cu. m. in 2015. This year, Gazprom provided the country with 4 billion cu. m. of gas at $83 per 1000 cu. m. as payment for transit fees. It supplied another 3.1 billion cu. m. at $257 per 1000 cu. m. as well.