Bulgaria Reassesses Costly Gas Deal with Turkey Amid Shifting Energy Landscape

Bulgaria is rethinking its long-term agreement with Turkish gas company Botas after realizing that maintaining access to its gas infrastructure comes with a hefty price tag. The arrangement, which was designed to reduce Bulgaria's dependence on Russian gas while opening up access to global LNG supplies, has become financially burdensome for the country.

The 13-year deal allows Bulgaria to transport up to 1.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually through Turkey, but it requires the country to pay not only for the gas it uses but also for reserved capacity, which is essentially an insurance policy guaranteeing access to Turkish infrastructure when LNG supplies are needed.

As the energy market has changed, the guaranteed capacity has come to be seen as too expensive, particularly since a significant portion of the reserved capacity was reportedly not used by Bulgargaz. The arrangement also raised questions over the legal and financial implications of long-term energy contracts.