BELGRADE (Reuters) -The Sofia city prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday it had conducted an investigation into a 2023 gas deal between Turkish state gas company Botas and Bulgaria’s Bulgargaz and searched the home of a former energy minister.
Bulgargaz and Botas signed a 13-year deal in 2023, allowing Bulgargaz to use Turkey’s LNG terminals for cargo shipments, which would be transported via Botas’s gas network to Bulgaria.
However, the deal led Bulgargaz into debt, as it ended up paying for unused capacity, energy minister Zhecho Stankov said in May. Bulgargaz has so far paid 600 million lev ($359 million)to Botas.
“Currently, procedural and investigative actions are being carried out to collect and verify evidence,” the prosecutor’s office said. It said a house of one individual was searched.
“The subject of the investigation is the contract between the Bulgarian company Bulgargaz EAD and the Turkish energy company Botas, the circumstances surrounding its conclusion and whether the contract caused damage to the state.”
Former energy minister Rosen Hristov, who negotiated and signed the deal, said his house had been searched and that the investigators had taken his phone and laptop, website novinite.com reported.
In the statement he denied any wrongdoing and said the investigation was politically motivated.
No one was available in Botas to comment on the investigation.
European Union member Bulgaria, which had been totally dependent on Russian gas until 2022, has been seeking to diversify its gas supplies and find cheaper sources and the deal with Botas was part of that effort.
($1 = 1.6704 leva)
(Reporting by Ivana Sekularac; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )
