Azerbaijan may resume gas supplies to Bulgaria on Jan 15

BAKU. Jan 13 (Interfax) - Azerbaijan is expected to resume gas supplies to Bulgaria on January 15, the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) said, citing the Bulgarian state-owned gas distributor Bulgargaz.

"Deliveries of natural gas from Azerbaijan are expected to resume from January 15 following their suspension on January 7. BTA has been informed about that by Bulgargaz," the news agency said.

Turkey's BOTAS is currently supplying gas to Bulgaria, Bulgargaz said.

As reported, Bulgargaz said last week that Azerbaijan suspended gas deliveries to Bulgaria from January 7 for technical reasons.

The company also said that supplies were expected to be restored on January 11. However, BP Plc on January 10 reported a malfunction in the pipeline transporting condensate from the Shah Deniz Alpha platform to the Sangachal terminal. The platform's operations were halted in order to fix the glitch as soon as possible.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Saturday that gas flows from Azerbaijan to Serbia were being suspended due to a technical issue at the Shah Denis deposit. However, Vucic said on Sunday that gas exports would not be stopped.

Bulgaria has a long-term contract with Azerbaijan for 1 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas per year.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, for his part, said earlier that his country's gas deliveries to Bulgaria would total 1.5 bcm in 2024, which amounts to about half of the country's gas consumption. Bulgaria received 1.25 bcm of gas from Azerbaijan in 2023.

Azerbaijan has gas supply contracts with ten European countries, such as Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia and North Macedonia. It has long-term contracts with fixed supply volumes with three countries - Italy, Greece and Bulgaria - and contracts without specific volumes with the others.