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Russia and Turkey reportedly suspended negotiations on the construction of the Turkish Stream natural gas pipeline.

According to media reports, the negotiations were suspended after Russia failed to sign a key agreement on the discount of gas prices.

Back in February, Turkey obtained a 10.25 % discount on the 28-30 billion cubic meters of gas it purchases from Russia.

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak has said construction of the so-called Turkish Stream gas pipeline might begin later than planned.

There is a risk not to start building the pipeline's first section on schedule the intergovernmental agreement is not signed in time, Novak is quoted by RIA Novosti as saying.

Russia is currently ready to sign only an agreement to build the first section of Turkish Stream, Russian news websites quote an Energy Ministry source as saying.

This comes after reports that Moscow has sent a draft intergovernmental agreement to Ankara on the construction of a pipeline set to replace the abandoned South Stream project.

The Russian Energy Ministry has sent a draft intergovernmental agreement on the "Turkish stream" project to the Turkish side, a source in the ministry told Russian news agency TASS on July 28.

According to the source, it was "an intergovernmental agreement on the project's first line with a capacity of 15.75 billion cubic meters [bcm]," as reported by TASS. 

Serbia faces new worries about its gas supply after Russia's Gazprom on July 8 said it had canceled a contract with Italy's Saipem to build the first section of the Turkish Stream Pipeline under the Black Sea.

South Stream Transport, Gazprom's subsidiary, said it would soon start negotiations with new potential contractors.

Russia?s Gazprom has canceled a contract with Italian oil and gas contractor Saipem to build the first line of ?South Stream,? a project to build a gas pipeline beneath the Black Sea, the Russian gas company said in a statement on July 8.

Gazprom subsidiary South Stream Transport BV has suspended a contract with Italy's Saipem SpA for the construction of the first line of the offshore section of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline.

Bulgaria will have to count on two prospective gas pipeline projects to secure to fulfill its recent dream and become a key player on the energy map, Austrian daily Wirtschaftsblatt says in an article.

The text is mostly focused on the now ditched South Stream pipeline and the hopes Bulgaria is pinning on alternative projects that are being put forward.

Austria said on Monday it has filed a legal challenge at the European Court of Justice against EU-granted state subsidies for a new nuclear power plant in Britain.

"Subsidies are there to support modern technologies that lie in the general interest of all EU member states. This is not the case with nuclear power," Chancellor Werner Faymann said in a statement.    

Bulgaria is "also interested" in the realization of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline project, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vasily A. Nebenzya has said.

In an interview with Russian news agency Interfax published on the website of the Foreign Ministry in Moscow [RU], he has explained that "many countries in Southern Europe" are interested in the project.