Bulgarian business has suffered losses worth 101 million leva from the halted supplies of Russian natural gas over the period January 6-13 2009, Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev was quoted as saying by Bulgarian-language Dnevnik daily on January 13 2009. 

Stanishev has made his estimates based on the data provided by 368 companies monitored by the Government and the final account on the financial losses will be made once after the gas supplies are being fully restored.

According to Stanishev, a working group will have to decide from whom Bulgaria will ask compensations about the financial losses that have occurred as result of the halted gas supplies. Next to that, the group will ave to decide whether companies themselves would be fined for not having 15-day reserves of alternative to the natural gas fuel, Dnevnik said.

Bulgaria's biggest concern at the moment was for the natural gas supplies to be restored.

On January 12 2009 Russia agreed to restore the supplies of natural gas for Europe via Ukraine the next day but as of January 13 2009 observers in Ukraine have still not confirmed any of that.

The BBC quoted Russia's Gazprom deputy head Alexander Medvedev as saying that Ukraine has blocked gas deliveries to Europe.

According to him, Ukraine had failed to carry the gas to Europe after Gazprom resumed pumping it across the border. Kiev, according to the BBC, has said it could not pump the gas as Russia had switched on the transit route.

Stanishev said that Bulgaria will insist on signing contracts directly with Russia's Gazprom. Currently, Bulgaria has contracts with three intermediary companies, controlled by the Russian energy giant.

"We do not know the price the three companies buy the gas from Gazprom but we do know the price Bulgarian consumers are paying to the three companies," Stanishev was quoted as saying by Dnevnik.

The situation that has occurred since January 6 2009, when Gazprom was ordered by Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin to halt the supplies to Europe, has raised questions about Gazprom, Russia and Ukraine's reliability as partners, Stanishev said.