Bulgargaz will revise its proposed gas price for November by adding extra gas from the Chiren storage facility. Georgi Tatarski, the firm's chief executive, told an open meeting of the energy regulator KEVR. The first proposal was for a 34% rise from October.
Tatarski said the company took part in a tender to draw more of its own gas from Chiren, and its volumes have grown. It will file a new proposal with KEVR by the end of the month. The company looked for reserves so the rise would not be so big, he added.
The first proposal sets the price at €59.08 per MWh, before access and transmission fees, excise duty and VAT. When it was filed, the TTF exchange in the Netherlands stood at €81.60 per MWh. Prices are now 20% higher. Even after the change, the new price will be €40 per MWh below exchange prices, Tatarski said.
KEVR chairman Plamen Mladenovski called on the company to make the hard choice and use every option to balance the price. He noted that more than 60-70% of the gas price depends directly on prices on international markets, mainly the Dutch exchange. Prices on US exchanges are 11 to 12 times lower than in Europe.
Prices have been rising for the past few months, and neither the Bulgarian government nor KEVR can do much to change that, Mladenovski said. Gas storage sites are at their emptiest ever going into winter. Last-minute demand to fill them leaves Europe and its economy facing high prices.
Mladenovski wants the November rise to be no shock for households and for district heating companies, which buy most of their gas from Bulgargaz. He said the global situation and the markets cannot change, but the price can go up in smaller steps. That would help Bulgargaz too, he said, because higher prices mean more unpaid bills and debts from the heating companies.
KEVR will take the final decision on the price at a closed meeting on 2 November.