The national economy has lost over a half-billion leva in the last two years as a result of the
termination of the previous agreement between Bulgargaz and Gazprom and the signing of a new agreement in 2006, MPs Martin Dimitrov and Ivan Sotirov of the Right-wing United Democratic Forces (UtdDF) said Wednesday. They were speaking to the press after seeing the agreement with Gazprom at the Economy and Energy Ministry.

Former Economy and Energy Minister Roumen Ovcharov dismissed the criticism and said that the two MPs have failed to look at the Gazprom agreement in its entirety.

Public interest in the agreement with Gazprom has been hightened as of late by the dramatic increase of gas prices under a Tuesday decision of the energy regulator: by 23.89 per cent as of today and by 21.4 per cent as of the beginning of next year.

The two called the agreement "a major blow" on the Bulgarian economy and said that having seen it, they expect growing inflation and failures of businesses. "We are concerned because the government, Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev and former economy minister Roumen Ovcharov who signed the agreement, lied when they told us the price of gas would only increase by 40 per cent," said Dimitrov.

He said that gas prices are set to increase by 50 per cent in a matter of three months alone.

Dimitrov called that "an inadmissible misleading of the public". He also said that the previous agreement with Gazprom has been favorable and called its termination "inadmissible".

According to Ivan Sotirov, those who signed the present agreement in 2006 could have figured out the present increase of gas prices.

According to UtdDF, the agreement fails to protect the national interest as a result of the Bulgarian Socialist Party's servility to Russia.

Former economy minister Ovcharov, who is now an MP of the Left, dismissed the claims of Dimitrov and Sotirov and said that the agreement with Gazprom safeguarded the strategic interests of Bulgaria and not of the government or any other short-term interests.

He argued that when a contract is being analyzed, one should not take only one component. He said that the increase of gas transit through Bulgaria as a result of the agreement should also be taken into consideration. In his words, the most important thing about this agreement is that it guarantees an increasing amount of gas to be transited through Bulgaria until 2030, which will bring additional revenue of some 4 billion.

In a separate development, the chairman of the Association of Heating Utility Companies, Valentin Terziiski, told BTA that the price for central heating should be increased by 35 per cent to adjust it to the new gas prices and preclude losses for the heating utilities.

"The increase of the price of natural gas will be by over 50 per cent by the end of the coming heating season which means that the costs of the heating utility companies will increase by 33-35 per cent before the end of March," Terziiski said.

As tension mounts over the increase of natural gas prices and the troubles of the debt-ridden heating utility companies, electric heaters producer Diplomat reported a dramatic increase in sales on Wednesday. By way of an example, Diplomat Business Group CEO Lyuben Stanev said that in the scope of several days last week demand for their products went up five-fold in the Black Sea city of Bourgas whose heating utility company was among three (along with Pleven and Vratsa) facing suspension of gas supplies over their failure to pay up to supplier Bulgargaz. The situation was identical in some of Sofia's residential districts.

Source: BTA