Energy

Gazprom is planning to pump less gas then usual into Slovakia on Monday, the country's gas supplier Eustream has said.

Projected deliveries are 49.6 million cubic meters for that day, which is 17% short of the usual volume or 21% than the maximum amount for September, Russian agency Interfax has reported.

The Board of Directors of Russian energy giant Gazprom decided on September 10 to inject EUR 100 M into the capital of the South Stream Transport joint venture.

The move was reported by the press office of Gazprom, as cited by ITAR-TASS.

Gas supplies from the Russian Federation to Romania returned to normal this Saturday, but there was no confirmation yet from state-owned natural gas monopoly Gazprom that Romania would next week receive the entire amount of gas imports, Minister-delegate for Energy Razvan Nicolescu told AGERPRES.

As of now there is no signed agreement for the transit fees from the South Stream gas pipeline, Bulgaria's caretaker deputy PM Ekaterina Zaharieva told the bTV national channel.

"No matter how much South Stream would cost, we don't know if it will be profitable, as we don't know what the benefits for us will be", she said in a bTV talk show on Friday. 

Prime Minister Victor Ponta assured on Friday that Romania has sufficient gas reserves, but underscored the need for Romania to exploit its own gas deposits to no longer depend on Russia's Gazprom.

Around 1/5 of the electricity produced in Bulgaria is exported, according to data of the Electricity System Operator (ESO) for the first nine months of 2014.

The rate of electricity exports has increased by 84% from the same period of 2013.

By September 7, electricity production in Bulgaria amounted to 31,222 billion KWh, including exports of 5.9 billion KWh.

Austria announced Thursday a 15% decrease in deliveries of Russian gas.

It is yet to be established if the reason for the decline was technical, such as a damaged compressor station, or political.

At the same time, sources of Austrian energy group OMV said it had been informed by Russian partners about a supply reduction.

Gas flow from Russian state-owned energy company Gazprom to Slovakia contracted 10 percent on Thursday, a top gas supplying company in the country has announced.

Slovakia's SPP has confirmed that supplies have been reduced, the Wall Street Journal and the Ukrainian website ZN.ua report.

Gazprom expects to get the approval of the new Bulgarian government for the construction of the local section of the South Stream gas pipeline.

Alexander Siromyatin, Deputy Head of Gazprom's Project Management department, explained that the South Stream gas pipeline project had not been frozen.

Sixteen Greenpeace activists have been detained after staging a protest at a coal thermal power plant in the Black Sea Province of Zonguldak on Sept. 11.