Energy

Gazprom has told pipeline makers to suspend deliveries of pipes for expanding Russia?s network to be connected to the proposed Turkish Stream project, an industry source said on July 6.

The delay is another snag in Moscow?s plans to build a gas pipeline via the Black Sea to Turkey, and on to south Europe in order to bypass Ukraine.

The Commission for Protection of Competition (KZK) has launched a sector analysis of the fuel retailing market in Bulgaria.

The watchdog will check for cartel agreements or abuse of dominant position.

In 2011 the antitrust watchdog approved a sector analysis of the gasoline and diesel fuel markets in Bulgaria spanning the period 2009-2011.

Austria said on Monday it has filed a legal challenge at the European Court of Justice against EU-granted state subsidies for a new nuclear power plant in Britain.

"Subsidies are there to support modern technologies that lie in the general interest of all EU member states. This is not the case with nuclear power," Chancellor Werner Faymann said in a statement.    

Forest fires in the exclusion zone around Ukraine's closed Chernobyl nuclear power plant haven't led to a rise in radioactivity levels in Bulgaria, the Interior Ministry in Sofia said on Thursday.

According to the Interior Ministry, "there is no risk for the lives and health of the people on Bulgaria's territory", state news agency BTA reported.

10 000 liters of diesel fuel have been withdrawn from the market following inspections by a regional unit of Bulgaria's State Agency for Metrological and Technical Surveillance at filling stations on the territory of the Silistra municipality.

The inspections were conducted in the period June 22-25, according to a media statement of the Agency.

Turkey and Russia's Gazprom are likely to finalize a deal on natural gas prices by mid-July, Turkish officials told Reuters, after Ankara warned last week it could seek international arbitration if they failed to agree.

Deliveries of gas to end customers in Serbia will be regular and reliable, Srbijagas, Serbia’s state-owned natural gas provider, said on Wednesday.

This is true "despite the new situation concerning transits of natural gas across Ukraine and information about suspension of Russian gas supplies to the country," the company said in a statement quoted by Tanjug.

Gazprom halted gas deliveries to Ukraine on Wednesday and said it won't resume supplies until Kiev makes a pre-payment.

The Bulgarian government will establish an energy security council, which will coordinate the national policy in the energy sector and define the Bulgarian priorities within the framework of the European Energy Union.

The decision was taken at the regular meeting of the Council of Ministers on Wednesday, the government's press service informs.

Ukraine announced on June 30 the immediate suspension of all Russian gas purchases after EU-mediated negotiations aimed at keeping supplies running for at least three more months broke down.