Minister Alexander Nikolov talks about changes in the supervision of Bulgartransgaz

"There are enough reasons for a change in the supervisory board of Bulgartransgaz, in my personal opinion," Energy Minister Alexander Nikolov told bTV. Which cannot be explained rationally. Respectively, when something cannot be explained rationally. It means there is something behind it. This thing behind is most often called corruption. "

"This is, to put it mildly, a wonderful past and legacy about the indebtedness of a company that still can't pay for an interesting project. The price paid - good or bad - can very easily be compared to other infrastructure projects. However, the problem remains that the payment for this infrastructure depends on only one supplier, and that is Gazprom. Accordingly, the manner of concluding this agreement shows the extent to which Bulgaria's interest has been met, "Nikolov said.

The Minister of Energy also commented on the information that a member of the board of Bulgartransgaz received a jeep as a gift from the company that built the gas pipeline. It is about the wife of the PR of the leader of GERB Sevdelina Arnaudova, who was recently arrested.

According to him, the question of why this gift was given to him is important in this case.

"For some time now, there have been accusations and speculations about a political broom and so on. Personally, I have said several times that I think there are enough sensible people, when left to work freely, they can work well. The fact that even a particular person , which you quote, is in the management body of this company, I think it clearly shows whether there was a political broom or not. But from now on the Bulgarian Energy Holding has a high enough expert potential to carry out specific inspections and take appropriate decisions when necessary and after a detailed inspection, "Nikolov said.

He himself has not done anything in this case, because "I think the time of unity is over and I hope so", and he, as a minister, cannot legally take steps to change the management of Bulgartransgaz, because they are in the prerogatives of BEH and are approved by the EWRC.

"The fact that something is not public at the moment does not mean that there is no inspection. When there is a result, you will understand," said Nikolov.

The Minister of Energy was adamant that there was no reason to change the price of electricity for households. He stressed that at this stage there was no request to pay Russia in rubles.

"If the gas from Russia stops tomorrow, the first thing that will be done will be to monitor the quantities available under other contracts. Then the quantities of imported liquefied gas in Bulgaria will increase and the key and critical companies will be monitored. At the moment, due to the end of the heating season, Bulgaria's dependence on natural gas will drop dramatically. Accordingly, there is time to further consider the details of existing contracts, "said the Energy Minister.