It is good that Energy Minister Vladimir Malinov admits that not the KEVR, but the Ministry of Energy is responsible for supervising the technical condition of the transmission network and related problems.
This is recalled on "Facebook" by Iliyan Vassilev.
If you don't know who is behind him, look at the moment when Ivan Ivanov from the KEVR refused to take responsibility for the electricity crisis, and pointed out to Malinov the Law, according to which the responsibility for the technical supervision of the transmission network and for energy security lies with the Ministry of Energy. There is a special directorate there that is responsible for the Security of the Energy System. Immediately after Ivanov's rebuttal, Peevski demanded his resignation in order to keep his precious energy minister.
Security of supply issues are not regulatory issues, and in this sense, shifting the blame to KEVR is hypocritical to say the least. Of course, not only Malinov is responsible for the power outage, which has deprived many families of electricity for more than a week, and in many places - even water.
Today I noticed that Malinov is trying to accumulate geopolitical red dots with a PR campaign, stating that if Gazprom stops natural gas to Moldova, he will come to the rescue. With what, please? Did I miss that Bulgargaz buys gas on the Turkish border and sells it to others, and thus has buffer quantities that it can provide for Moldova? Yes, to some extent with capacities, maybe, but there is a problem there too, because because of the Rupcha-Vetrino section, in which all capacities are engaged in the transmission of Russian gas to Serbia, Hungary and probably from January 1 to Slovakia, there are no free capacities for the export of significant quantities of new gas to Moldova, beyond the current quantities, using rather complex schemes. Bulgargaz has no free quantities of gas, beyond those that it resells as Russian gas, received from Litasco, DEPA and Mytileneos. I understand that Malinov is trying to position himself to remain as minister, but this legitimate desire of his must be assessed against the background of the damages and troubles for which he is personally responsible.
As for the ERPs - yes, they will take responsibility and pay penalties, but has he checked the supply contracts, who takes on such damages, because these are insurance events? The situation is like the old saying: "A beaten man is a beaten man."
After the New Year, according to investigators, a new batch of revelations directly related to Malinov's activities is expected. No matter how much he tries to prevent their release, backup channels for information have already been provided.
And the fact that he refuses to provide the deputies with information on revenues from the Turkish/Balkan Stream is brutal. If he doesn't know how to calculate, let's help him: let him announce how much he receives under the contract with GPE, then calculate the quantities that enter from Turkey through Strandzha 2 and exit at Kireevo. This is the transit via the Turkish Stream – calculated as leased capacities and tariffs. The truth is that GPE forced Bulgartransgaz (BTG) to reduce tariffs well below market rates, even below the minimum required to recover the investment costs in the project.
Currently, in order to present the "success" of Balkan Stream, Bulgartransgaz is transferring revenues from internal transmission and other customers to create the illusion of total revenues, which Malinov and Borisov present as "billions". But what - billions of leva, dollars or rubles?
The truth is that by almost all professionally measurable criteria for the profitability of the investment of over 3 billion leva in TurkStream, the project is high-risk and has an unsustainable forecast. Especially if it is based on Malinov's planned larger quantities of Russian gas through Bulgaria to Hungary and Slovakia.