Natural gas

The draft of the Emergency Ordinance (OUG) providing for a set of measures among which the capping of the natural gas price is a proposal assumed by the Romanian Government to protect the population against possible price raises of the natural gas above the population's affordability, a release by the Ministry of Energy sent to AGERPRES reads.

The Energy and Water Regulatory Commission will discuss the procedure that will enable Bulgartransgaz to sign contracts for the transfer of natural gas from the Turkish to the Serbian border, reported the Bulgarian National Television. 

If the procedure is approved, the necessary infrastructure, which is part of the concept of the Balkan gas hub, will be built.

Greek oil company Energean on Monday announced the signing of an agreement with Israel Natural Gas Lines which foresees the construction by Energean of onshore and near-shore natural gas facilities in Israel, to be handed over to INGL upon completion.

The pipework will transmit quantities from Energean's floating, production, storage and offloading unit to the Israeli gas network.

Bulgartransgaz is at the final stage of creating a natural gas trading market in Bulgaria, Minister of Energy Temenuzhka Petkova said at a briefing in Parliament, Focus News Agency reports. The operator, a subsidiary of Bulgartransgaz, will be set up by the end of the year.

Turkey will transform from an end user to an intermediate user with the commissioning of the second line of the TurkStream natural gas project, while eliminating transit risks through Ukraine, Volkan Özdemir, head of the Ankara-based Institute for Energy Markets and Policies (EPPEN), said in an interview with Anadolu Agency.

Natural gas to rise by 3.5% from January.

Bulgargaz submitted this request to the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission, BNR announced. The regulator explained that such an increase would not require a change in the price of heating, hot water and electricity.

Greek industries exposed to international competition face energy costs up to 60 percent higher than their rivals in Europe, a PWC study for Belgian energy regulator CREG reveals.

The price of the heating in Bulgaria will not change as of January 1, because a 4 percent increase in the price of natural gas is expected for the first quarter of 2019. This is what the Chairman of the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (KEVR) Ivan Ivanov told journalists in the building of the regulator.

The companies looking for oil and gas on land and sea in western Greece will invest 500 million euros in the next 7-8 years, according to the head of the state-owned company that negotiates the exploration licenses.

Sofia plans to take a minority stake in a liquified natural gas (LNG) terminal near Greece's northern city of Alexandroupoli, Bulgarian Energy Minister Temenouzhka Petkova has said, according to reports.