Natural gas

The price of natural gas may drop by more than 13.6% as of October, according to Ivan Ivanov, Chair of the Commission for Energy and Water Regulation (KEVR).

Ivanov declared Thursday that a price drop exceeding the preliminary estimate of state-owned gas company Bulgariaz of 13.6% would mean that gas rates would have dropped by over 30% in a year.

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic on Monday said Serbia will try to expand the capacity of Banatski Dvor, its only gas storage, from 450 million to one billion cubic meters, to increase energy security.

The weakness of the Turkish Lira against the U.S. dollar has placed an extra 11 billion lira ($3.82 billion) burden on Turkey?s natural gas bill since the beginning of the year, Energy Minister Taner Y?ld?z said on Aug. 19.

France's Total is preparing to start drilling for oil and gas off Bulgaria's Black Sea coast in early 2016, Reuters reported.

"It depends on the availability of our contractors when exactly we will start, but everything is going according to the plan," Xavier Faugeras, general manager of Total's Bulgaria division, told Reuters on Monday.

The Israeli government on Aug. 16 approved a major deal with a consortium including US firm Noble Energy on natural offshore gas production in the Mediterranean, the prime minister's office said.

With two planned new taxes on electricity and natural gas consumption, the government will collect 5.2 billion Turkish Liras ($1.8 billion) in new income, according to a draft plan drawn up by the Energy Ministry, daily Milliyet has reported. 

If the national energy efficiency strategy draft is passed in parliament, two new taxes will be added to energy and gas consumption. 

The construction of the first branch of the proposed Turkish Stream gas pipeline will cost EUR 4.3B, while the price of the four planned pipes will be EUR 11.4B, according to estimates of Russia's Gazprom.

State-owned Bulgargaz said on Monday it plans to cut natural gas price for consumers by 13.65% in the fourth quarter of the year due to an expected drop in the price of gas supplies.

Russia's largest gas producer Gazprom beat expectations with a 71 percent jump in first-quarter net profit after weakness in the ruble more than compensated for a drop in sales volumes to Europe.

The United States on Friday announced an expansion of the list of sanctions imposed on Russia by including a oil and gas field.

The Federal Register's Industry and Security Bureau explained in a statement that it had been decided to "further implement" sanctions on "certain Russian energy projects" by adding the Yuzhno-Kirinskoye oil and gas field in the Sea of Okhotsk.