SOCAR

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will be honored with the highest recognition of the World Petroleum Council (WPC), the Dewhurst Award, for his "outstanding contribution to the oil and gas industry," the WPC announced in a statement late on June 21. 

Iran expects to sign a long-delayed gas deal with French oil major Total in the next few weeks, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh was quoted as saying on June 17.

''Bulgaria has opened negotiations with Azerbaijan on the supply of additional quantities of natural gas to be used by the future gas distribution hub near Varna'', said Deputy Energy Minister Zhecho Stankov, reported BNR.

The two countries currently have an agreement on the delivery of 1 billion cubic metres of gas as of 2020.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will visit Turkey to attend the 22nd World Petroleum Congress (WPC), which will take place in Istanbul between July 9 and 13, according to the statement released by the World Petroleum Council on June 9.        

The council stated that during the Congress, Tillerson would receive the highest honor from the World Petroleum Council.        

Azeri Energy Minister Natig Aliyev died on June 9, a day after being transferred to hospital in Istanbul for treatment for a heart complaint, Azeri news agency APA-Economics reported.

The 69-year-old veteran executive in Azerbaijan's energy sector was president of state energy company SOCAR and chaired the company's board of directors between 1993 and 2005.

Greece will launch a new tender competition for the privatization of its natural gas grid operator DESFA in June, Energy Minister Giorgos Stathakis said on Tuesday.

Stathakis announced the tender in an interview with Greek news website liberal.gr without disclosing details.

British oil company BP expects to sign a contract at the end of June extending its production sharing deal for Azerbaijan's biggest oilfields until 2050, the company's regional head said on May 31.

Austrian oil and gas group OMV has announced the sale of its Turkish subsidiary Petrol Ofisi to Swiss oil trading giant Vitol for 1.368 billion euros ($1.45 billion).

Athens must speed up the privatization of Greek natural gas grid operator DESFA because delays in the process are having a negative impact, the company's chief executive said on Thursday.

The privatization of DESFA is part of a drive by Greece to sell state assets, which is a significant condition of the country's bailout by the European Union and IMF.

It appears that it's back to the drawing board for the DESFA privatization project after the failure of the agreement with Azeri company Socar for the the sale of the state's gas grid operator. The government is aiming to complete the entire procedure as soon as possible, and definitely within 2017.