Bulgaria Unaffected by Ukraine's Decision to Stop Buying Russian Gas

Dimitar Gogov was removed from the post of CEO of Bulgargaz on November 8 but he will keep exercising these functions until his successor is officially registered by the Registry Agency. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria has experienced no gas supply disruptions as a result of the reported refusal of Ukraine's national oil and gas company Naftogaz to buy gas from Gazprom.

Gogov, CEO of state-owned gas supplier Bulgargaz, announced Monday that Bulgaria had not been informed about an upcoming supply disruption.

Ukraine's Naftogaz was reported to have completely stopped buying gas from Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom.

"The system is managed by the Ukrainian company. It can stop gas supplies flowing in one or the other direction, but, judging by the documents, Ukraine's refusal to buy gas supplies should not result in a supply disruption for other consumers located to the west or northwest of its territory," Gogov explained, as cited by dnevnik.bg.

"The gas flow is common, a very large quantity of gas enters from several points, but in any case the situation at hand, from what I gather from the press release, involves a refusal of Ukraine to buy Russian gas, not a refusal to carry Russian gas," he added.

He went on to say that even of there was some sort of problem, it would not be felt immediately, but in a certain amount of hours.

Last week, Economy and Energy Minister Dragomir Stoynev warned that Bulgaria could be affected by escalated tensions between Russia and Ukraine over payments for gas supplies.

A dispute between Ukraine and Russia caused Bulgaria to be left without gas supplies for a few days in January 2009.

Dimitar Gogov was removed from the post of CEO of Bulgargaz on November 8 but he will keep exercising these functions until his successor is officially registered by the Registry Agency.

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