Putin said Ukraine still had work to do to align its gas regulatory landscape with that of Europe, questioning whether Kiev would be able to achieve this in time. "That is not up to us," he said. "Therefore, the risk of termination of transit exists."

Brent was down 43 cents at $61.85 a barrel , WTI slipped 22 cents to $56.55 a barrel.

"The law implements a European compromise, in which we, together with France and the Commission and other member states played a major role," Altmaier said.

The timeline for work to lay the section of pipeline in Danish waters will be key to when Nord Stream 2 is able to begin flowing gas, with wider implications for the European gas market -- including whether Russia's Gazprom agrees a new transit deal with Ukraine's Naftogaz.

Poland's antitrust authority, the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK), said Friday it had imposed a fine on France's Engie of Zloty 172 million ($44.5 million) for its failure to provide the watchdog with documents regarding its agreements with Gazprom aboutfinancing the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

Alexey Miller pointed out that a number of strategic issues need to be resolved prior to the signing of a new transit contract.

Poland sees Nord Stream 2, which would double Russia’s gas export capacity via the Baltic Sea, as a threat to Europe’s energy security and argues it will strengthen Gazprom’s already dominant position on the market.

Renewable energy resources have accounted for 46% of Turkey's electricity generation so far this year, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Dönmez said Tuesday.

Gazprom has offered to Naftogaz the chance to start over with a clean slate provided all legal disputes were dropped. "There are known cases in international practice when disputes between companies were settled out of court, and we are offering a zero option whereby all court proceedings would cease, all lawsuits would be withdrawn, and we would draw a line under this whole affair," Miller said last month.

In 2019, Gazprom exported an estimated 9.3 billion cubic meters of gas to Hungary from the year’s beginning through October 29, and that is already a 22 per cent increase compared with the total gas supplies to Hungary recorded in 2018.

The current 10-year agreement between Gazprom and Naftogaz Ukrayiny expires at the end of 2019, and the EC is brokering talks aimed at putting a new contract in place to take effect from the start of 2020.

After threatening last week to increase the US tariff on imports of Turkish steel to 50%, President Donald Trump said Wednesday he had instructed the Department of the Treasury to lift all sanctions imposed on Turkey in light of a pause in the latter country's military operations in northeastern Syria -- but some saw the initial threat as hollow and of no major impact on Turkey-US steel trade flows.

The impact of the dual TurkStream (TS) natural gas pipeline will be significant in changing the region's gas flow patterns

The current 10-year agreement between Gazprom and Naftogaz expires at the end of 2019, and the European Commission is brokering talks aimed at putting in place a new contract to take effect from the start of 2020.

Russia and Serbia signed an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the construction of the Center for Nuclear Science, Technology and Innovations in the Republic of Serbia.