The Directorate-General for Competition of the European Commission officially notified "Bulgargaz" EAD and "Bulgartransgaz" EAD that the case in connection with the agreements concluded between the Bulgarian companies and the Turkish energy company "Botas" has been closed, and no conclusion has been made on the established violation of competition.
This was announced by the Ministry of Energy.
With its letter to the two Bulgarian companies – – Bulgargaz“ and “Bulgartransgaz“, the EC confirms that the investigation has been closed, without a conclusion on an established infringement.
We recall that in October 2023, the EC initiated a case under Council Regulation (EC) No. 1/2003 of 16 December 2002 on the implementation of the competition rules.
The subject of the investigation were the agreements concluded at the end of 2022 between Bulgargaz, Botas and Bulgartransgaz for the supply of liquefied natural gas to terminals in Turkey and the reservation of capacity at the interconnection points between Bulgaria and Turkey.
In this regard, the Directorate-General for Competition of the European Commission sent questions to “Bulgargaz“ EAD, and “Bulgartransgaz“ EAD. The two companies provided full cooperation to the EC authorities, all requested documents and comprehensive answers to all questions were submitted.
We recall that the EC is investigating the competition clauses and European legislation in the contract with "Botaş" and does not assess the purely commercial terms in the contracts.
That is why the contract in Bulgaria was mainly attacked, as it guarantees payments from the Bulgarian side, even from "Bulgargaz" not to use not only inefficiently, but also the reserved capacity in general.
In addition, criticism is also directed at the term of the contract - 13 years, as it was concluded during a crisis on the world markets in natural gas supplies as a result of the aggressive war that Russia launched against Ukraine, the suspension of the "Nord Stream"-2 project and the sabotage on "Nord Stream"-1.
This was a time of high prices and uncertain supplies, as well as of unclear supply lines under the conditions of the sanctions imposed by the EU on Russia, as a long-standing and largest supplier of natural gas to Europe. Doubts were also expressed that through the contract with "Botas" Rumen Radev's caretaker government wants to open the way for Russian gas to Europe again, but now with Turkey as a positioned intermediary, news.bg recalls.
After long discussions, including the formation of a temporary parliamentary committee in the 40th National Assembly on the contract with "Botaş", the Minister of Energy was obliged to renegotiate the terms of the agreement, but there is no information so far that the Turkish side has given in.