Bulgarian state gas supplier Bulgargaz has disclosed LNG volumes delivered through Turkish terminals under its agreement with BOTAS, but has not released payment data at the centre of controversy over the 13-year contract.
Deliveries under the arrangement rose from 664,438 MWh in 2023 to 3.34 million MWh in 2024 and 4.38 million MWh in 2025.
Those volumes represented around 2.5%, 12% and 15.8% of Bulgarian annual gas consumption in the respective years. Their share of total imports was considerably smaller, however, at below 1% in 2023, below 4% in 2024 and 5.4% in 2025.
Bulgargaz said BOTAS opposed publication of the financial data despite a Sofia Administrative Court ruling requiring disclosure of both volumes and payments on public-interest grounds.
Previous estimates cited in the report put reserved-capacity costs at around €500,000 per day, potentially rising to €550,000 in 2026 and €600,000 in 2027.
Rumen Radev later said Bulgaria owed BOTAS around $360 million, with arrears accumulating from July 2024.
The contract, signed by a caretaker government in 2023, has also become the subject of a prosecutor’s investigation. Bulgaria and BOTAS agreed in July to suspend implementation for 15 months while terms are renegotiated.
Disclosure of the physical volumes answers part of the debate surrounding the agreement. The larger question – the total cost of securing Turkish terminal and network access relative to the gas actually used – remains unresolved.
