Bulgaria to sue Gazprom over suspended gas supplies

Bulgaria is working on a lawsuit to an arbitration court against Gazprom, Bulgarian Energy Minister Rossen Christov announced.

The country, alongside Poland, is one of the states that refused to switch to ruble payments after the invasion of Ukraine, resulting in Gazprom cutting off supplies of the commodity, TVP World reports.

Lawsuits against Gazprom for breach of contracts have already been filed by Poland’s PGNiG, Italy’s Eni, Germany’s RWE, Finland’s Gasum, France’s Engie, and Ukraine’s Naftogaz.

The Bulgarian minister, citing internal analysis, assessed that the risk of Gazprom being able to turn to the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce in Stockholm and win the case is slim, but stressed that before Sofia makes a claim against the Russian company, it must complete its analytical work on the application.

Sofia is preparing the documents with the participation of experienced international companies and the application will be ready within a month or two, Christov revealed.

He also acknowledged that it is too early to determine the amount Bulgaria could possibly claim from the Russian gas giant.

In 2022, the year Gazprom de facto stopped executing existing contracts to 12 European countries, the corporation’s net profit fell by more than 72 percent compared to the previous year.