Bulgaria’s state gas supplier Bulgartransgaz has been “decapitalised” by a contract with Turkish company Botaş, Energy Minister Zhecho Stankov warned on Thursday, saying the deal could also threaten gas supplies to local district heating companies.

Stankov said Bulgartransgaz’s market share in Bulgaria has fallen to around 50% over the past four years. He described the agreement with Botaş as putting Bulgaria and its state-owned company at a disadvantage and endangering the country’s energy sector.

“By 2021, the company was stable. Now it has been brought to its knees,” the Minister added.

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The 13-year contract, he said, effectively “concedes the company’s profits for the next 200 years to the Turkish gas operator,” noting that the deal contains no termination clause and increases the financial burden on the state. Stankov called on President Rumen Radev to help renegotiate it.

The contract was signed in January 2023 by the then energy minister, Rosen Hristov, and the Turkish energy minister, Fatih Dönmez.