Bulgaria’s public gas supplier Bulgargaz Holding officially requested from State Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (SEWRC) to be allowed a natural gas price increase in Q1 of 2008 of 25.46 per cent.

With the increase, the price of natural gas would reach 416.89 leva per 1000 cu m, VAT not included, starting January 1 2008, investor.bg said.

According to Bulgargaz, the price increase was of 19.47 per cent above the price ceiling determined by SEWRC for Q4 2007. The company charged a lower price so far because the Economy and Energy Ministry gave up its dividend for the period.

Bulgargaz also said that the price increase request was lower than the expected 33.57 per cent. The lower requested increase resulted from a lower rating of the US dollar.

Besides, the company decided to lower its surplus charge from three to 0.5 per cent. Thus the company would earn 1.98 leva per 1000 cu m, instead of 11.86 leva.

Bulgargaz Holding CEO Lyubomir Denchev commented on calculation by the economy and energy ministry, which showed that the gas price could be raised by up to 17 per cent, by saying that these calculations most probably were based on old data.

Bulgaria’s deal with Russian Gazprom for gas supplies allowed the country to buy 354 million cu m of gas every three months at lower prices. Thus gas prices in the country were lower than the average price in Europe.