September 27 (SeeNews) - The debt owed to public gas supplier Bulgargaz by municipal heating utility company Toplofikacia Sofia surged to 273 million levs ($134.5 million/139.6 million euro) in the 12 months to June 30 from 87 million levs a year earlier, due to the stark jump in natural gas and carbon prices, the Bulgarian utilities regulator said.
Toplofikacia Sofia, which supplies heating to the Bulgarian capital city, must draft by September 30 a schedule for the repaying of debt to Bulgargaz and to detail the actions it plans to take to strengthen its financial position, the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (EWRC) said in a statement last week.
In the year to June 30, state-owned Bulgargaz delivered a little over 7.8 million MWh of natural gas to Toplofikacia Sofia, which cost the heating utility 911 million levs, the statement showed.
Toplofikacia Sofia's overall indebtedness to Bulgargaz amounts to 888.3 million levs after factoring in state compensations of 196.6 million levs.
In July, Toplofikacia Sofia said it plans to conduct a tender to select an international investor.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)