Bulgaria’s energy regulator decided yesterday to raise wholesale natural gas prices by 2.49 percent from October 1 to reflect higher alternative fuel prices on international markets.
The State Commission for Energy and Water Regulation set gas prices at 374 levs ($278.7) per 1,000 cubic meters for the last quarter of the year from 365 levs now to reflect also a stronger US dollar. The increase, however, will not lead to a change in heating bills for households, the regulator said in a statement.
Energy prices are a politically sensitive issue in the European Union’s poorest nation where, especially in winter, power and heating bills eat up a significant part of wages and pensions that are just a fraction of those in the West.
State gas monopoly Bulgargaz has forecast that wholesale natural gas prices would jump by over 20 percent as of January due to the increase in alternative fuel prices over the last six to nine months.
But the new chairman of the energy regulator, Angel Semerdzhiev, said on Tuesday that there was no justification to raise wholesale prices next year by as much as Bulgargaz had demanded.
(KATHIMERINI, 10/01/2009)