Petroleum production

The international tender issued by the government last week for oil drilling in 20 areas in the Ionian Sea, Western Greece and off Crete, contains terms that can only be met by very large oil companies. Environment and Energy Ministry officials confirmed that these terms result from a targeted strategy to attract oil giants, mainly dictated by the great depths of the areas to be drilled.

Croatian politicians have hailed an EU decision to support the construction of a liquefied natural gas, LNG, terminal on the Croatian island of Krk, which will eventually be connected with the LNG terminal on the Baltic in Poland.

The train from Sofia to Varna which went off the tracks on Saturday at the Kaloyanovets station was moving at a speed of 100 km/h at the time of the incident, authorities say.

The speed limit in the section of the railroad it was crossing was 40 km/h.

Increased US exports of liquefied petroleum gas amid higher shale oil production will boost demand for ships that carry gases such as propane, butanes and ethane, Paris Kasidokostas-Latsis, director at Athens-headquartered Latsco Shipping Ltd, said.

Eighteen out of 24 Ukrainian regions have declared they have insufficient amount of liquefied gas (LNG), with Western town and cities most severely affected, local media report.

Following 15 years of inactivity in the Greek hydrocarbons market, drilling in northern and western Greece was imminent following the signing of contracts in Athens on Wednesday. Drilling is expected to begin at Ioannina, northwestern Greece, offshore in the Patraikos Gulf as well as off the coast of Katakolo in western Greece.

Turkey looks at Norway as a potential supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG), as its Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said while on a visit to Oslo.

At a press meeting with his Norwegian counterpart Tord Lien, Yildiz announced his country had requested to buy up to 6 B cubic meters of gas, according to The World Bulletin.

By Nikos Roussanoglou

Greece’s coastal shipping sector has set a target of having at least one liquefied natural gas-fueled vessel operating in the next two years, according to a meeting on Wednesday between Merchant Marine Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis and sector associations.

Significant amounts of natural gas could be extracted from Bulgaria's Khan Asparuh deep-water block, OMV believes.

Austrian energy company's expectations have so far been fomented by the discovering of vast amounts of gas at Neptun, a deep-water block in neighboring Romania situated next to Khan Asparuh.

BELGRADE - Naftna industrija Srbije (NIS) has introduced a new drilling method at a well in Kikinda, northeast Serbia, referred to as dry location drilling, NIS stated.