Natural gas

Gazprom will begin building the offshore section of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline in the coming months, a Gazprom board member said Feb. 28.      

The construction process will start in the second half of 2017, Oleg Aksyutin said in Moscow, adding that progress on the gas transportation system in Russia had been largely completed.

Israel sees Turkey not only as a big market but also as a major economy in the region, Delek Group's Gas Pipeline Project Director Ofer Oberlander said Feb. 23.        

The chairman of the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (KEVR) Ivan Ivanov reckons that the demand of Bulgargaz for a 32% hike in the price of natural gas as of April 1 is unjustifiably high.

Iran has found a dozen new oil fields that could produce 30 billion barrels of crude and 128 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to Press TV quoting officials in Tehran.

Bulgaria's state-owned gas supplier has announced the prices of natural gas will have to go up by nearly a third as of April this year.

In a statement, the company has cited higher supply costs as of the next quarter.

Another argument is the current BGN/USD exchange rate.

Greece has concluded talks with a consortium led by France's Total for deep sea gas exploration in one block in western Greece, its energy minister, Giorgos Stathakis, said on Wednesday, taking the two sides closer to signing a deal.

Authorities are again on high alert regarding the country's uninterrupted supply of natural gas and electricity as there is a serious risk that the Revythousa LNG station will run dry in the first five days of February.

US liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporters have shifted their focus to Southern Europe from Asia as cold weather and problems with Algerian gas supply have driven Europe's gas prices higher.

Gas prices in Europe are at their highest premiums to US gas prices for three years.

Several cargoes have already made their way to Europe, and analysts expect more to come.

In a presentation that took place in Brussels last Monday, EDISON explained why the Eastern Mediterranean Pipeline (EastMed) is an economically and commercially viable project. The company presented a series of relevant data to the Energy General Secretariat of the EU and the Chief Executives of the involved countries Greece, Israel, Cyprus and Italy.

Gazprom's investments in gas midstream will grow by 6.8 percent year-on-year to 911.2 billion rubles ($15.3 billion), including the Turkish Stream project, the Russian gas holding said on Jan. 19, as reported by TASS. 

Investments in the Turkish Stream project will total 42 billion rubles ($702.7 million) in 2017, according to the report.