Bulgarians have been gradually switching to the non-traditional for this country use of household gas supply, which provided them with a cheaper source of energy than the more popular electricity, Focus news agency reported on October 24, quoting recent data by the largest private Bulgarian gas supplier Overgas Inc.

The holding’s subsidiaries throughout Bulgaria registered an average growth of 40 per cent in the volume of sales since the beginning of 2007, Focus said. Ninety municipalities in this country, or around one third of all, had been issued licences for the construction and utilisation of household gas supply networks. In 51 of them the networks had been built and operated  by Overgas.

About 40 Bulgarian towns and cities had been implementing gas utility projects, including the capital Sofia, Bourgas and Varna on the Black Sea, and Rousse on the Danube, as well as smaller ones like Levski, Isperih, Bozhurishte, Dolni Dubnik and others.

In Sofia alone more than 7000 households had already been connected to the gas supply system, which according to Overgas was giving the citizens the opportunity to “live comfortable and healthy life, use the safest, most efficient and environmentally friendly technology, and pay lower bills”, as was the case for 240 million European household gas users.

Around 8000 more families in Sofia had applied to be connected to the network. Gas installations were installed in almost every new residential building constructed in the southern part of Bulgaria’s capital.

Heating with gas was twice cheaper as heating using electricity, Overgas said. A 100-sq-m apartment would cost 400 leva a month to have proper heating, while for the entire winter seasons, the total amount was 1200 leva. The corresponding figures for heating with gas were 180 leva and 720 leva.