“Gazprom” search monetary penalty from Bulgaria for natural gas. It is about amounts of the contract expired at the end of 2022. Bulgaria stopped receiving gas from Russia at the end of April last spring. It has been speculated for months whether “Gazprom” will file a lawsuit because we did not take the requested quantities, which, however, had to be paid in rubles. The amount requested is now in no way related to thisexplained about NOVA Energy Minister Rosen Hristov.
Without going into details about the exact amount, Hristov explained that it is a question of a financial dispute that has been going on for a long time. There is no claim that Bulgaria refused to pay for the gas in rubles. Until our contract with “Gazprom” expired, “Bulgargaz” continued to send daily deliveries of quantities of gas, but to no avail.
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“Actually, it’s an old claim from April-May a relatively small amount. It is about paid and delivered quantities. There is a difference in accounting how much delivered, how much paid. There is no arbitration case, there are no claims even under the “Take or pay” clause, stated our Energy Minister Rosen Hristov.
According to the experts Gazprom will not risk a lawsuit against Bulgargazas long as they haven’t done it yet.
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“Most likely, it will lose it, or at least there is a serious risk of losing it, since Gazprom has violated the agreement. It can cite force majeure circumstances and other clauses in the contract, that’s right, but still the risk and the obligation to prove its position will be with Gazprom, not with the Bulgarian side”, says Martin Vladimirov, an energy expert.
