Azerbaijan suspends gas supply to Bulgaria for 4 days; Türkiye steps in to cover shortfall

Bulgaria‘s state-owned natural gas company, Bulgargaz EAD, announced that contracted gas deliveries from Azerbaijan were halted from Jan. 7 to Jan. 11 due to unspecified technical reasons.

The company confirmed that Türkiye’s BOTAS supplied replacement gas to maintain uninterrupted service.

Azerbaijan gas supply temporarily halted

In a statement released earlier this week, Bulgargaz said it had received notice from Azerbaijan about the suspension of contracted gas supplies. While the exact reasons were not disclosed, industry sources told Reuters that the issue stemmed from a problem at the Alpha platform of BP’s Shah Deniz gas field.

“All people on the platform are safe and there is no environmental impact. All offshore facilities including the SDA platform and the pipeline are also safe,” BP said in a statement.

“For operational reasons, production and export operations from the SDA platform were suspended and the platform has been safely shut down … We are currently working to resolve the problem and resume normal operations as quickly as possible,” a spokeswoman told Reuters.

Replacement gas supplied by BOTAS

Bulgargaz assured that the interruption had no financial or market impact. “The suspension did not lead to additional costs for replacement gas procurement, nor did it affect the regional natural gas market,” the company stated.

The shortfall was covered by supplies sourced from Türkiye’s state pipeline operator, BOTAS.

Due to technical reasons, one of the suppliers of Bulgargas EAD has suspended the supply of natural gas as of 07.01.25. The supply is expected to be restored as of 11.01.2025.

The notification from the supplier under the long-term contract with Azerbaijan was received on 06.01.25. Thus, the interruption did not lead to additional costs for the company to purchase substitute natural gas and did not affect the natural gas market in the region.

Such situations once again demonstrate the need to diversify supply sources and routes, not only to achieve competitive conditions and prices, but also to ensure security of supply in the event of technical problems.

Bulgargaz EAD

Calls for greater diversification

The incident has renewed calls for increased diversification of natural gas sources. Bulgargaz emphasized the importance of such measures in light of the temporary disruption.

The Shah Deniz field is a major source of natural gas for southeastern Europe, including Bulgaria, which has relied on Azerbaijani supplies under a long-term contract.