Bulgaria will launch a tender next week to secure liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies for the peak winter demand period.
This was stated by the country’s new caretaker Prime Minister Galab Donev during the first meeting of his administration, according to a statement.
He said that the country’s energy ministry would announce a tender next week for short-term deliveries of LNG to ensure the country’s consumption until the end of the heating season.
Donev also said the energy ministry, together with the finance ministry, would prepare a plan for the “financial stabilization of Bulgargaz so that the company is able to financially secure gas supplies.”
US LNG supplies
Bulgaria said in May it would start receiving US LNG in June after Russia’s Gazprom cut off pipeline gas supplies to the European country.
The country has no LNG import facilities. However, it is working with Greece to receive LNG supplies.
Greece and Bulgaria also completed a new pipeline which will allow Bulgaria to import natural gas from Azerbaijan and Gastrade’s FSRU-based Alexandroupolis LNG import project.
State-owned Bulgarian Energy Holding and a joint venture of DEPA and Italian energy group Edison own the gas interconnector.
Bulgaria’s Bulgartransgaz has a 20 percent in Gastrade’s FSRU-based Alexandroupolis LNG import project which should go online in 2023.
Previous reports also said that Greece’s DESFA had granted capacity access to Bulgaria to its LNG import terminal located on the island of Revithoussa, currently the only such facility in Greece.
DESFA’s data previously showed that Bulgargaz, a unit of Bulgarian Energy Holding, has received a partial LNG cargo in July from the US at the Revithoussa LNG terminal.
The firm will also receive a partial cargo from the US in August as well, the data shows.
Local media reports also said this week that Former Bulgarian energy minister Alexander Nikolov told a local television that US LNG exporting giant Cheniere has offered seven LNG cargoes to Bulgargaz.
According to the reports, Bulgaria has confirmed one cargo for delivery in October, while the other shipments have to be approved by the new government.
Besides these moves, Bulgaria’s Overgas is looking to take regasified LNG from Excelerate Energy’s planned Vlora LNG terminal in Albania.
The two firms recently signed a memorandum of understanding, in Sofia, Bulgaria relating to the sale of regasified LNG downstream of the Vlora terminal.
