Expert: Bulgaria Doomed to Russian Gas Price Blackmailing

Energy | June 25, 2010, Friday // 17:37|  views

Vasil Filipov, former CEO of Bulgargaz, has spoken against the import of Russian natural gas. Photo by btv.bg

Bulgaria will keep paying excessively high prices for natural gas until it finds an alternative to the Russian gas supplies, stated energy expert Vasil Filipov.

Filipov, who was the head of the Bulgarian state gas company Bulgargaz in the late 1990s, declared that if Bulgaria found an alternative supplier, it would free itself from Russian blackmailing, and its natural gas prices will be cut in half.

“If we are unable to achieve this, our economy and our households will operate in a state of collapse, and we will have a gas supply problem as soon as extremely bad winter weather appears,” Filipov told Pro.bg TV Friday referring to the 2009 gas war between Ukraine and Russia, and the current similar dispute between Russia and Belarus.

“In Bulgaria there is a submission to the interests of Russia. Two or three generations in Bulgaria lived and fed from these interests, and were subservient to the Russians all these years,” he pointed out.

The former Bulgargaz CEO is convinced that Russia does not have enough own natural gas deposits to fuel its transit capacities, which is why the construction of the South Stream gas transit pipeline is unnecessary.

“Russians’ gas extraction is decline, and we should not be participating in projects with them, our country has to focus on other options such as the pipeline connections with Turkey or with Serbia, which gets gas from Europe,” Filipov explained.

He believes that Bulgaria’s center-right government of PM Boyko Borisov is still not fully aware of the energy picture, and is still keeping in place officials who are interested in maintaining the status quo in the energy relations with Russia and are not working to find an alternative.

Filipov recommended that the Cabinet should order an audit of the State Commission for Energy and Water Regulation (DKEVR) and of the firms trading with natural gas but that should also hire fully independent experts for this person.

He slammed the recent audit of the three power utilities E.ON, CEZ, and EVN because they allegedly carried out by people dealing with frauds their entire lives, and would cover up anything illegal.

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Tags: Russia, blackmail, South stream, natural gas, Vasil Filipov, Bulgargaz, DKEVR, power utilities

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