Bulgaria, Turkey Agree to suspend Bulgargaz–BOTAŞ gas deal for 15 months

The contract between Bulgaria's state-owned gas supplier Bulgargaz and Turkey's state energy company BOTAŞ will be suspended for 15 months following a bilateral meeting in Ankara between Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The agreement was reached one day before the NATO summit, which is set to take place in the Turkish capital.

According to the document signed by the two companies, Bulgaria will pay only for the gas transmission capacity it actually uses during the 15-month suspension period. The two sides will also hold active negotiations throughout this period to renegotiate the terms of the contract in line with current market conditions, the Bulgarian government's press service said.

Until now, Bulgaria had been required to pay the Turkish company nearly $500,000 per day, regardless of whether it used the gas transmission network. Political critics have argued that these obligations have resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in debt for Bulgargaz.

The contract between BOTAŞ and Bulgargaz was signed in 2023 and is valid for 13 years, until 2036. The specific terms that will be renegotiated during the 15-month suspension period have not yet been disclosed.