Fuels

The price of natural gas is 53% lower today compared to a year ago, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said at an extraordinary government meeting.

Bulgaria's MPs approved at first reading the establishment of State Oil Company. The opposition also voted in favor of the proposal. 148 MPs voted in favor, 1 MP voted against and 4 MPs abstained. The draft envisages the creation of nearly 100 state-owned petrol stations on state or municipal land.

Azerbaijan's integrated drilling and oil services management company, SOCAR AQS, opened 40 wells to expand the storage capacity of the Salt Lake (Tuz Gölü) Natural Gas Storage Facility in central Anatolia, head of SOCAR AQS said on May 27.

Around $103 million will be invested for storage expansion at the Salt Lake facility, SOCAR AQS Director General Ramin Isayev told Anadolu Agency.

Late last night, a signal was given for a gas leak from a gas station. It is located in the Smirnensky district, close to the medical dormitories.

It turned out that a pump supplying fuel to the gas stations had failed.

The area was immediately cordoned off by police. There was no need to evacuate the people in the neighborhood.

Every year, thousands of people die prematurely in Serbia due to the quality of the air they breathe. Yet the country is still in breach of obligations to control harmful emissions from its coal-fired power plants.

After Bulgaria declared a state of emergency because of the coronavirus, fuel consumption dropped by more than 40% in major cities and highways, and nearly 80% in small towns. The situation also creates great discomfort in fuel prices. This is commented on BGNES spokesman of the National Association of Traders and Transporters of Fuel Simo Simov.

The government's protection measures have led to a 20 percent drop in demand for gasoline from last year, while the market estimates that, as the measures get stricter, the reduction will reach 40-50 percent in April.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stressed the government's determination to phase out lignite plans as part of the National Plan for Energy and Climate at a meeting with Energy Minister Kostis Hatzidakis and ministry officials .

The data for fuel demand in January have caused concern at the Environment and Energy Ministry, as after years of shrinking there were hopes the 2019 recovery would continue.

Speaking on Thursday to the chief executive officer of Public Gas Corporation (DEPA), Konstantinos Xifaras, US Ambassador in Athens Geoffrey Pyatt expressed Washington's warm support for the project of the Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU) off Alexandroupoli in northeastern Greece, as it assists the US in its strategy for the diversification of Europe's energy sources.