BULGARIA GAS CRISIS DAY 4: SITUATION IMPROVING

UNCLAS SOFIA 000010 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ENRG ECON PREL PGOV BU SUBJECT: BULGARIA GAS CRISIS DAY 4: SITUATION IMPROVING REF: SOFIA 0005 AND PREVIOUS ¶1. (SBU) Despite severe cold and snow, the situation improved on day four of a complete gas cut-off. As more district heating plants successfully switched from gas to other forms of fuel, heat to many apartments around the country was resumed. Nationwide, sixty-eight schools remain closed and five hospitals are without heat while they switch to alternate fuel. The situation continues to take a toll on industry. Over 70 plants have stopped work completely due to lack of gas and about 150 are working with limited capacity. The Ministry of Economy and Energy estimates direct losses to industry at 8.3 BGN (USD 5.8 million) a day with significant additional collateral losses such as the inability to fulfill contracts and service loans. Despite one small protest and a slew of harshly-worded editorials about government mis-management, the population remained calm. ¶2. (SBU) The Foreign and Energy Ministers will brief an emergency session of the Parliament's Energy Committee on the situation as well as on diversification efforts on January 9. Economy and Energy Minister Dimitrov announced January 8 that he and his Greek counterpart had set up a joint working group for the possible construction of an LNG terminal in the Aegean. He also repeated his hope to use EU stimulus package funds to build a linkage to the Greek gas transmission grid through a hook-up to the Turkey-Greece-Italy interconnector (reftel). McEldowney