SOFIA (AP) – Bulgaria is considering a new agreement with Russian gas giant Gazprom, which has sought to increase the price Bulgaria pays for gas by 30 to 40 percent, the economy and energy minister said yesterday.

Economy and Energy Minister Rumen Ovcharov said Gazprom and Bulgarian state-owned gas provider Bulgargaz had agreed on a draft agreement after almost a year of negotiations. The cabinet must now approve the agreement. Currently, Bulgaria buys about 40 percent of its gas at a reduced price. “Our government must make a strategic decision whether to defend until the last minute the current transit agreement that is so profitable for Bulgaria, or to try to secure economical stability through a new long-term contract,” Ovcharov said in a statement. “Both options have advantages and disadvantages; we have to make a very important decision,” he said, but did not provide any details of the draft.

Bulgaria’s current gas agreements expire in 2010. If approved, the draft transit deal will be in force until 2030, Ovcharov said.

Bulgaria now has two agreements with Gazprom – for direct gas deliveries and a gas-for-transit deal, under which Bulgaria buys gas at a reduced price of $83 (–68) per 1000 cubic meter in exchange for Gazprom’s using Bulgarian pipelines to ship gas to Greece, Turkey and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Gazprom has been pressuring Bulgaria to pay cash for all deliveries at a fluctuating market price, and to receive a fixed transit fee. Ovcharov did not provide details of the new draft, or to what extent it honored Russian demands. He said, however, that “the initial position of the Russian side had softened substantially.”

The draft will be discussed today by the three parties of the governing coalition, and if approved, it will be sent to the cabinet for adoption. Bulgaria, a tiny Balkan country of 7.8 million, is almost entirely dependent on Russia for its gas and oil supplies.