January 29 (BTA) - The Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) has replaced the entire leadership of state-owned natural gas supplier Bulgargaz. This transpired from the minutes of a BEH Board of Directors meeting published in the Commercial Register. The meeting took place on Friday.

Bulgargaz Executive Director Nikolai Pavlov and the other members of the company's Board - Svetoslav Delchev, Diana Boneva, Iliyan Dukov and Nikolai Donchev - were replaced by Lyudmil Yotsov, Anzhela Slavova, Anton Adamov, Ivan Topchiiski and Stefan Voinov.

Energy Minister Alexander Nikolov commented for bTV that the shake-up at Bulgargaz follows a probe conducted by BEH, which began a few weeks ago, and was also influenced by "some additional factors and the current situation created by heating prices in Bulgaria". According to Nikolov, the decision was not directly linked to an operation by the State Agency for National Security. "I think the decision was based entirely on considerations of reasonableness, a vision of how the company can perform and how it ought to be run, particularly in view of protecting the public interests," he added.

The Minister did not say what the BEH probe found. He noted that BEH needs to make "reasonable decisions about the companies in its system". During the time of the check, there were many comments about whether it was possible to obtain additional amounts of natural gas from Azerbaijan, and if so, how. "A letter was received which clearly confirmed that it was possible to deliver additional amounts via the point that was being used," Nikolov said.

"Time will show what will happen at Bulgargaz after the leadership change," Nikolov said. The decision was prompted by an assessment of what was done in the past and to what extent the public interests were protected. "This is evident from electricity bills," he said.

Interviewed by Darik Radio, Prime Minister Kiril Petkov indicated that the Bulgargaz case has to do with soaring natural gas prices. He said the price increase has resulted from wrong decisions. "In my view, there were decisions which pushed the prices up instead of bringing them down," he said.

He also pointed to "missed opportunities", saying that Bulgaria could import gas not only from Russia but also from Azerbaijan. According to the Prime Minister, the gas control and dispatch centre at Nea Mesimvria in Northern Greece could be used to supply gas to Bulgaria. "For some reason which is unknown to me, we did not do it. On top of that, we have given up those amounts of gas for a certain period of time, putting ourselves in a position to buy only Russian gas at much higher prices. That is how the price of gas went up by 30 per cent."

The Prime Minister expects the new Bulgargaz Board to use a better decision-making mechanism. At the same time, the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission should know more about the pricing methods of energy companies, he said. 

 

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 A position of the dismissed members of the board of directors of Bulgargaz EAD, distributed by the International Affairs and Public Relations Department of the company, states that the board considers the decision to replace its members as politically motivated and in contradiction with the requests made for expert management of state-owned companies. The position was signed by Diana Boneva, Nikolay Pavlov, Ilian Dukov, Nikolay Donchev and Svetoslav Delchev.

The dismissed management of Bulgargaz claims that they were not notified in advance and learned the news from the media. No official reasons for the decision have been given, former directors said. The management of the company was acquainted with a preliminary report, which contained completely erroneous allegations, findings and recommendations, their position states. The former directors claim to have provided detailed explanations, additional information and justifications for the questions asked. They also do not accept the criticism for the increased gas prices and the smaller quantities of Azeri gas.  The former leaders of the company were adamant that these allegations were not based on any objective basis.

As Bulgargaz EAD has repeatedly explained, the only reason why the Bulgarian market cannot receive all quantities of natural gas under the agreement with Azerbaijan is the lack of the Bulgarian-Greek gas connection - the IGB gas pipeline from Komotini to Stara Zagora. The principal BEH, the Ministry of Energy and the Council of Ministers all have access to the original text of the contract with the Azerbaijani partner and should accept the fact that the place of gas supply is clearly defined - Komotini. The position to the media also specifies that the contract was signed by the current management of Bulgargaz EAD, but should still be strictly implemented.

At the end of 2020 and in 2021 the management of Bulgargaz EAD, BEH and the Ministry of Energy managed to prevent the non-fulfillment of the contract and payment of penalties to the Azerbaijani country in connection with the lack of IGB and the inability to receive Azerbaijani gas in Komotini. As a result of difficult negotiations, the contract was saved and diversification of supplies through the import of Azerbaijani gas was ensured, albeit in reduced quantities, recalled the old board of directors. They point out that the Azerbaijani side has agreed to supply these quantities at the contract price through an alternative gas pipeline, although there is no such obligation under the contract.

The former directors also recall recalled that in 2013, at the date of signing the contract with the Azerbaijani side, Bulgargaz was in a difficult financial situation and had made financial commitments to the Azerbaijani company, which at that time it was unable to fulfill. To date, the public provider is in excellent financial condition, considering that 2021was its best year for the last decade - with record sales and record profits. 

The dismissed board of directors commented that the reasons for the increases in natural gas prices in recent months are entirely external to Bulgaria as part of the common market of the European Union. VE/DT

 

 

Source: Sofia