The bill would sanction vessels that lay Russian energy export pipelines at least 100 feet below sea level.

The Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), the major segment of the Southern Gas Corridor is ready to supply Azerbaijani gas directly to Europe.

The new rules cast doubt over the commercial operation of Nord Stream 2, which argues that it has been unfairly targeted by fast-tracked legislation to stall the project.

Russia has said it wants to cut substantially its gas flows to Europe via West-leaning Ukraine by doubling the capacity of the existing Nord Stream trunk via the Baltic Sea and laying gas pipes to Turkey and onwards through the Black Sea.

U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) have been growing steadily and reached a new peak of 4.7 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in May 2019,

Russia’s Gazprom, the world’s largest conventional gas producer, has raised about $2.20 billion from selling a 2.9% stake to a single buyer at a large discount to the market price.

Russian gas sales on Gazprom Export's Electronic Sales Platform (ESP) surged to another new record high on Wednesday, with a colossal 406 million cu m sold in the latest auction.

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.

"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.

A gradual economic recovery is underway. Recent increases in wages, pensions, and social assistance; and measures to reduce tax and debt burdens are expected to boost nonoil growth to 2.7 percent over the near term.

"Over the next five years we will do everything necessary to become truly energy independent: we will unite our power grids with the European ones, integrate into the European energy market, increase oil and gas production and create conditions for the development of alternative energy sources. Together with the energy saving program this will make our economy more efficient and will give impetus to the development of Ukraine," the head of state said during a meeting with the business community in Kyiv.