Gazprom

The Russian energy company, Gazprom has raised the price it charges Ukraine for gas by 43.6%.

The company's chief executive Alexei Miller said the change was because Kiev has failed to pay its bills.

He said its current debt to Russia stood at just over USD1.7 B.

Ukraine has agreed on a 50% increase of gas prices for domestic consumers.

Hike of gas bills is part of conditionality set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) if Ukraine is to be granted an aid package.

State energy company Naftogaz reported that price changes will be into force from May 1, with more rises due to be made until 2018.

The future of the South Stream pipeline is unclear and probably it will not be realized soon, said the head of the Italian company Eni, Paolo Scaroni. 

Eni is one of the key shareholders in the project and holds 20% of its shares. Eni is the largest Italian gas company and the main distributor of gas from Russia's Gazprom in Italy.  

Ukraine to lose offshore gas fields in Black Sea

KIEV -- With the loss of Crimea, Ukraine has lost not only its naval bases in the territory, but also offshore gas fields in the Black Sea, reports said on Thursday.

These fields will now likely be taken over by Russia's oil and has giant Gazprom, AFP is reporting.

Crimean Parliament has approved a bill seizing assets of Ukrainian oil and gas enterprises operating in the region.

Resources owned by Chernomorneftegaz and Ukrtransgaz, entities dealing with extraction and transportation of fuel, have thus passed into the hands of local authorities, Russian agency RIA Novosti has reported.

Crimean authorities took control of Ukraine's Black Sea and Sea of Azov oil and gas fields off the coast of the peninsula.

The speaker of Crimea's parliament Volodymyr Konstantinov told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti that the Russian companies including energy giant Gazprom should be involved in extracting the resources.

Experts from Russian state-owned Gazprom are to visit Macedonia's capital Skopje for talks over the construction of a South Stream gas pipeline section.

Russian energy giant Gazprom has warned that it will stop supplies to Ukraine if it does not pay its debt.

Alexei Miller, its Executive Director, explained Ukraine currently owes USD 1.89 B and assure his company "cannot supply gas for free", he was reported by Businessweek as saying.

"Nothing is holding back South Stream project"

BELGRADE -- There are no misunderstandings between the Serbian and Russian partners regarding the South Stream gas pipeline project, says Dušan Bajatović.

BELGRADE - There are no misunderstandings between the Serbian and Russian partners regarding the South Stream gas pipeline project nor is the project being held back by problems in funding and provision of guarantees for loans, Dusan Bajatovic, director general of state-owned natural gas provider Srbijagas, said Thursday.