Bulgaria has indicated it wishes to begin holding talks with Russian state energy giant Gazprom about resuming natural gas deliveries according to Energy Minister Rosen Hristov in an interview with Nova TV.

He told the TV network, “There are still no active talks with Gazprom… but we have given an indication that we want to start negotiations, or rather to continue them to clarify some controversial terms of the contract. We simply sent information that we were ready to negotiate and asked them to resume contact.”

A response is expected from Gazprom either on Friday, or Monday  of next week. at the latest. He stressed, “We are only talking about the old contract; we will not re-sign or negotiate a new contract.”

He went on to say, Sofia is only seeking to extend the deadline of the contract so that they take take receipt of the already contracted volumes of gas until 2023.

In April, Bulgaria had balked when Gazprom required that customers pay for natural gas in rubles in response to Western sanctions imposed on Russia over the military action in Ukraine. Under the rule, Moscow required any country taking part in the sanctions regime pay for their gas in rubles.

Sofia refused the terms, and Gazprom cut the flows to the nation through its Bulgarian partner Bulgargaz.

Now as winter closes in, and the gas market’s tightness has driven prices to record levels, Bulgaria is taking a second look at Gazprom’s deal.