The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) will supply 370,000 cubic meters of gas to Bulgaria's Asarel Medet mining and processing complex by the end of the current year, complex's Executive Director Nikolay Peltekov said in an interview with Report.

"The supplies of natural gas from SOCAR for Asarel Group started on June 21, 2024 with the CNG supplier M-Gaz. In practice, we entirely use natural gas from SOCAR which is currently satisfying our overall consumption. It is expected Asarel to receive 370,000 nm3/year natural gas from SOCAR until the end of this year," Peltekov said.

He explained that Asarel Group uses natural gas in the form of CNG due to the lack of connection to the gas transmission and distribution network.

"At the beginning of pipe gas supply by SOCAR we expect more competitive prices of the natural gas and an increase of its consumption for technological needs, as well as and for the new CO-GEN of natural gas which we plan to build up at the company territory," the agency's interlocutor said.

Peltekov noted that currently, the volumes of gas consumed by Asarel Group, mainly through CNG supplies, amount to about 1.3 million cubic meters per year during the winter period. "We expect the gas consumption to be at about 100 000 thousand nm3/year when the planned full capacity of CO-GEN of natural gas is built up at Asarel."

Asarel Medet is the largest company in Bulgaria for the open-pit mining and processing of copper and other types of ores. The complex produces and supplies high-quality copper concentrates and cathode copper.