Energy in the Soviet Union

A methane explosion killed 12 Poles and one Czech at an eastern Czech coal mine, the O.K.D. mining company said on Dec. 21, in the worst disaster of this kind in almost three decades.

Azerbaijan inaugurated on May 29 a pipeline that will eventually create the first direct route to transport gas from one of the world's largest fields to Europe bypassing Russia.

The first new oil refinery to be built in Turkey in 30 years will start up in the third quarter of 2018, the builder and operator Azeri state energy firm SOCAR said on Feb. 22.

Azerbaijan, via its state energy company SOCAR, is ready to engage in Bulgaria's gasification at its own expense. The statement was made by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on the occasion of a visit by the Prime Minister of Bulgaria Boyko Borissov to the central Asian country, EurActiv reports. 

British oil giant BP and energy-rich Azerbaijan on Sept. 14 prolonged their sharing deal for the Caucasus nation's largest oilfields until 2050.

"This time round, the contract is being signed on better terms for Azerbaijan," the ex-Soviet nation's President Ilham Aliyev said during a signing ceremony in the capital, Baku.

Turkey's Unit International has signed a $7 billion agreement with Russia's state-owned Zarubezhneft and Iran's Ghadir Investment Holding to drill for oil and natural gas in Iran, the company said on Aug. 15.

Russia will start supplying gas to China through a new pipeline by the end of 2019, state gas giant Gazprom said on July 4, as part of a mammoth $400-billion deal.

"Today a deal was signed...about the date of the start of gas deliveries through the 'Power of Siberia' pipeline. It is December 20, 2019," Gazprom boss Alexei Miller told journalists.

''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.

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.

Oil major BP has agreed with Azerbaijan to extend a contract to develop the country's biggest fields by a quarter of a century to 2050 in a move to unlock billions of dollars of fresh investments in the Caspian Sea deposits.