The natural gas pipeline project TurkStream, which will carry Russian gas to Turkey and Europe, as well as Turkey's first nuclear power Akkuyu, currently under construction by the Russian firm Rosatom, are two prominent strategic projects.

Ukraine in January-June 2019 increased transit of natural gas through its gas transportation system (GTS) by 6.1% (by 2.591 billion cubic meters) compared to the same period of 2018, to 45.079 billion cubic meters, according to recent data from JSC Ukrtransgaz.

Ukraine and Russia have been in dispute over gas issues for years, which escalated after a pro-Russian leader of Ukraine was toppled in 2014.

The head of state-run energy firm Naftogaz, Andriy Kobolev, has said that Ukraine needs to increase its gas reserves by 18% this year to cover its winter needs and to guarantee transit to European consumers.

The 229 million cu m sold Thursday is about half the average daily flows of total Russian gas to Europe last month of around 464 million cu m.

June oil imports from Russia to China were up 31.7% on month from 1.76 million mt in May, hitting a five-month high, and also 124% higher from a year earlier.

At its last board meeting in June, the central bank considered holding the key rate and cutting it by 50 basis points but eventually trimmed it by 25 basis points to 7.50%, Nabiullina said. “Other things being equal, we are trying to move in moderate steps for the economy to adapt to our new decisions,” she said in an interview with Reuters cleared for publication on Wednesday.

Russian daily oil output rose in June to 11.15 million barrels per day (bpd), up from 11.11 million bpd in May, still below the amount agreed in a global deal to cut production, Energy Ministry data showed on Tuesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin struck a deal with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman to extend the OPEC+ agreement at current production levels for the rest of this year and potentially into early 2020.

"Today our forecast for gas pipeline deliveries in 2019 to Europe and Turkey is between 198.6 and 201.1 Bcm," Miller said in a speech at the company's annual general meeting. Gazprom exported 201.9 Bcm to Europe in 2018, accounting for around 36.8% of the market.