Britain's largest energy supplier Centrica (CNA.L) has signed new gas contracts with two of the world's largest producers, Russia's Gazprom and Norway's Statoil, reflecting the UK's growing dependence on gas imports as its production declines.

Imports from the European Union (EU) will drop because Russian gas is now competitive, according to state-run NAK Naftogaz Ukrainy. Flows from Slovakia, the EU’s biggest supplier to Ukraine, may fall by a quarter from May, Tomas Marecek, the chairman of Slovak grid operator Eustream, said.

Ukraine is facing a huge energy-security challenge. It is dependent on Russia supplying most of its natural gas as well as uranium fuel for its nuclear reactors.

The Russian government is requesting that state-owned gas giant Gazprom provide discounted gas to the struggling government in Ukraine.

Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman's battle to salvage his North Sea gas fields purchase will take weeks if not months to resolve as the British cabinet has left it for the next government to take the decision, sources said.

Ukraine is facing existential challenges, and energy security is one of them. The country is dependent on Russia supplying most of its natural gas as well as uranium fuel for its nuclear reactors. Under these very difficult circumstances, a government with a holistic view of its strategic security and energy goals would logically develop a policy aimed at encouraging increased domestic oil and gas production. Unfortunately, Kyiv is doing the opposite.

The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday approved a bigger, high-risk bailout for Ukraine, giving Kiev immediate access to $5 billion of $17.5 billion in emergency IMF credit in another bid to keep the embattled country afloat.

The European Union should share the cost of filling Ukraine’s natural-gas storage if it wants to prepare for worst-case scenarios next winter, the country’s energy minister said in an interview, highlighting a potential clash in coming negotiations between the EU, Kiev and Moscow.

At the very beginning of developing the region’s life in the early 1970s, the Government turned to the British National Oil Corporation (BNOC) and the partly state-owned British Petroleum to kick start oil production offshore of Aberdeen.

Spain has welcomed a new agreement to connect its energy network with those in Portugal and France as a major step toward breaking Europe's dependence on Russian gas supplies.