Economy of Russia

Ivan Ivanov, chair of the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission stated that without amendments to the law there is no way money can be refunded to consumers as a result of the reduction in natural gas prices. He added that such a decision with retroactive effect would be annulled in court, BNR reported.

Bulgaria has agreed a 40% cut in the price of gas it imports under its long-term contract with Russia, its dominant gas supplier, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

Public Gas Corporation (DEPA) has shifted to an aggressive commercial policy, aiming to reverse the contraction of its market share, which dropped to 33 percent at end-2019 from 58 percent in 2018.

NR Investments Ltd, a company owned by British billionaire Nat Rothschild, on Sunday said that it was pulling out of its troubled investment in the main airport in Moldova following months of disputes.

The company said it was giving up 95.95 per cent of Avia Invest, the company that run Chisinau International Airport.

Fingers crossed, the decades-long ambition to have Turkey's first nuclear energy capability (at least one of the planned four nuclear reactors) is finally to become a reality by 2023 thanks to the Mersin Akkuyu project, developed jointly with Russia's Rosatom.

The road to the privatization of the Public Gas Corporation (DEPA) appears to be full of obstacles, with particular problems emerging for the process that will start with the submission to Parliament of a bill to that effect.

Turkey has everything it needs to be on the space power list and Russia is willing to cooperate for the first Turkish astronaut in space, the director-general of the Russian space agency (Roscosmos) said on Sept. 18.       

Russian gas exports to Turkey, Greece and seven other Southeast European nations fell by more than a quarter in the first half of 2019 as cheaper liquefied natural gas (LNG) and new Azeri supplies helped the region reduce reliance on Russia.

Turkey's natural gas imports from Russia declined by 36 percent on an annual basis to 8.1 billion cubic meters in the first half of 2019, data published by Russia's Gazprom has shown.

Gazprom expects the volume of gas exports to Europe to be reduced this year to the level of 2017 - up to 192 billion cubic meters, with the export price estimated to be 13% lower than in 2018. This was announced by Gazprom Export Head Mikhail Malgin.