According to the Serbian business media outlet Parametar, the Bulgarian state-owned company Bulgargaz has received a 10-year license for wholesale natural gas supplies in Serbia, opening the door for yet another major regional player to compete for Serbian consumers.
As Parametar analyzed, the significance of this decision lies not merely in the emergence of yet another licensed company. Bulgargaz has its own procurement portfolio and access to gas infrastructure in several Central and Southeastern European countries.
The company already holds the necessary licenses and permits to trade and supply gas in Greece, Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia, and operates in Moldova through its subsidiary, Bulgargaz North.
Of particular importance to Serbia is the interconnector with Bulgaria, with a capacity of approximately 1.8 billion cubic meters per year. Via Bulgaria, the Serbian market can receive Azerbaijani gas, as well as LNG arriving in the region through Greek terminals.
Bulgargaz will potentially be able to offer large Serbian enterprises a comprehensive supply package—from LNG procurement and regasification to transportation through Bulgaria and delivery of gas to Serbia.
For now, however, the discussion is limited to obtaining a license. Bulgargaz has not yet announced any major contracts with Serbian consumers. Therefore, the key indicator of a genuine market entry will be the booking of cross-border capacity and the signing of the first contracts.
The Serbian gas market is formally open to competition, but in reality remains highly concentrated. According to the latest complete AERS data for 2024, the state-owned company Srbijagas accounted for about 78% of gas sales to end consumers, Novi Sad-Gas for about 3.9%, Yugorosgaz for 3.2%, and each of the remaining suppliers accounted for less than 2%.
At the same time, the market infrastructure is changing. There are three gas transmission system operators in Serbia: Transportgas Srbija, Gastrans, and Yugorosgaz-Transport. In 2026, Transportgas received an operating license, and Serbia joined the regional platform for booking gas transmission capacity, which should facilitate new suppliers’ access to cross-border routes.
The arrival of Bulgargaz does not in itself mean lower prices or a significant redistribution of the market. However, if the Bulgarian company begins to actually supply gas to Serbian industrial enterprises, the Serbia-Bulgaria interconnector will gradually transform from infrastructure for diversifying supplies into a tool for real competition among suppliers.
According to Serbian Economist, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury has extended the operating license of the Serbian oil company NIS until October 30, 2026, allowing the company to continue its current operations after the previous permit expires on September 30.
The license extension means that NIS will be able to continue its operations, including the purchase and refining of crude oil, the production of petroleum products, and their supply to the Serbian market.
NIS has been subject to U.S. sanctions due to the company’s ownership structure and the involvement of Russian capital. Gazprom and Gazprom Neft entities remain the key Russian shareholders, while the Serbian government holds a large minority stake.
For Serbia, the issue of NIS’s operations is of strategic importance. The company operates the country’s only oil refinery in Pančevo and the largest network of gas stations, and it also holds key positions in the supply of petroleum products to the domestic market.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has previously stated on multiple occasions that Belgrade is negotiating with the U.S. side in an effort to ensure the uninterrupted operation of NIS while simultaneously finding a long-term solution to the issue of Russian ownership.
The one-month extension of the operating license eliminates the immediate risk of the company ceasing operations in early October, but it does not definitively resolve the issue of sanctions. In effect, Belgrade and NIS shareholders have been granted additional time to find a model for changing the ownership structure that is acceptable to OFAC.
Separately, negotiations are ongoing regarding the possible sale of the Russian stake. Throughout 2026, potential participants in the future deal included Hungary’s MOL and the UAE’s ADNOC, but the final structure of a possible deal has not yet been agreed upon.
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The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development may provide EUR600 million to restore the electricity balancing market, said Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Denys Shmyhal after a meeting with EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso.
“Ukrainian energy companies need EUR600 million in financing to revitalize the balancing market. We greatly appreciate the EBRD’s participation in this process and count on the bank’s support for this reform,” he wrote on his Telegram channel.
According to the First Deputy Prime Minister, the parties also discussed priorities for further cooperation across all areas. Currently, Ukraine, in partnership with the EBRD, is implementing 13 energy projects that cover virtually the entire energy chain—from gas production and supply to electricity generation and transmission—as well as projects in hydropower and renewable energy. The total value of the portfolio exceeds EUR3 billion.
In addition, Shmyhal and Reno-Basso coordinated further cooperation to attract new contributions for the reconstruction of the New Safe Confinement at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant during the Donors’ Conference, which is scheduled to take place in Paris in November.
Schneider Electric reported a roughly 30% increase in net income attributable to the company’s shareholders to EUR2.49 billion for the first half of 2026, while revenue reached a record EUR21.23 billion.
A year earlier, revenue stood at EUR19.34 billion. Organic sales growth in the first half of 2026 was 14%.
Adjusted EBITA rose to EUR4.09 billion from EUR3.51 billion, representing organic growth of 22%. The margin for this metric reached 19.3%.
The company’s free cash flow more than tripled, reaching approximately EUR 1.6 billion.
The second quarter was particularly strong, with Schneider Electric’s revenue reaching a record EUR 11.5 billion, an organic increase of 17%. The Energy Management segment grew by 18%, and Industrial Automation by 11%.
The company cites the data center market as one of the main drivers. Demand for electrical infrastructure for data centers is growing rapidly amid the development of artificial intelligence, which significantly increases computing density, power consumption in server racks, and demands on cooling and backup power systems.
North America posted organic growth of 23%, while China and East Asia saw growth of 20%.
Following a strong first half of the year, Schneider Electric raised its forecast for the full year 2026. The company expects organic growth in adjusted EBITA of 14–19%, up from its previous forecast of 10–15%.
Organic revenue growth is projected at 10–13%.
Schneider Electric’s results reflect a broader investment cycle in energy infrastructure. AI data centers require not only servers and graphics processing units (GPUs), but also transformers, distribution equipment, UPS systems, automation systems, cooling systems, and digital energy management solutions.
Thus, energy infrastructure is gradually becoming one of the key constraints on the further scaling of AI.
For Ukraine, this trend is significant in the long-term context of rebuilding digital infrastructure and constructing new data centers. Future facilities will require significantly more connected power capacity and a more complex power supply architecture than traditional server centers.
Schneider Electric has been operating in Ukraine for over 30 years. Globally, the company is present in more than 100 countries and employs approximately 160,000 people.
Electricity exports from Ukraine on September 14–20 decreased by 17.3% compared to the previous week, to 109.3 thousand MWh, while imports increased by 12.2%—to 18.6 thousand MWh.
“Overall, electricity sales were nearly six times higher than purchases,” the DIXI Group analytical center reported on Wednesday, citing data from Energy Map.
As the center noted, weather conditions had the greatest impact on electricity trade during the reporting period. A cloudy start to the week, combined with a gradual seasonal decline in solar power generation, reduced the daytime power surplus, and the largest decline in exports occurred during daylight hours. At the same time, comfortable temperatures, mostly without precipitation, did not create peak loads on the power grid. Industrial consumption remained low due to Russian attacks.
According to Energy Map, Hungary accounted for the largest share of last week’s exports—53.8 thousand MWh, or 49.2%. Moldova accounted for 36,2 thousand MWh (33.1%), Romania for 19,0 thousand MWh (17.4%), and Poland for 0,3 thousand MWh (0.3%).
Compared to the previous week, exports declined across all destinations: to Poland by 72% (due to insignificant supply volumes), to Romania by 28%, to Moldova by 22%, and to Hungary by 8%. Exports to Slovakia remained at zero.
Hungary also remained the main source of imports, accounting for 8,900 MWh (47.8%). Poland accounted for 5,900 MWh (31.4%), Romania for 3,800 MWh (20.6%), and Moldova for 0.04 thousand MWh (0.2%).
As previously reported, in August 2026, electricity imports to Ukraine increased by 5% compared to July—to 184,000 MWh—while exports jumped by 63.8% to 380,900 MWh, marking the highest monthly export volume since September 2025. As a result, Ukraine maintained its status as a net exporter for the second consecutive month: sales exceeded purchases by nearly double.
The energy shock caused by the U.S.-Iran war is likely to last longer than previously anticipated and extend beyond the oil sector, said Isabel Schnabel, a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB).
“At first, one might have assumed this was a short-term phenomenon, but, unfortunately, we have had to conclude that it is much more persistent,” Schnabel said at an event in Salsomaggiore Terme, Italy, on Thursday. “We’re not just talking about oil, but also diesel and natural gas.”
Her remarks reflect the ECB leadership’s ongoing concern about the consequences of the Middle East conflict, which has already caused inflation in the region to accelerate to a level significantly above the 2% target.
The year-over-year rate of consumer price inflation in the eurozone reached 3.2% in August, and analysts do not rule out it rising to 4% later this year, according to Bloomberg.
Expectations for further tightening of the ECB’s monetary policy have recently increased, with traders factoring in the likelihood of four interest rate hikes of 25 basis points (bp) by the regulator by the end of 2027.
“We’ve raised interest rates twice this year—first in June, then again in September—because we’re concerned about inflation. That’s why we had to act,” Schnabel said on Thursday.
The ECB raised all three key interest rates by 25 bps at its September meeting; the deposit rate now stands at 2.5% per annum.
