The Czech Republic won’t be joining the euro anytime soon, if the billionaire who’s poised to be the country’s next prime minister has anything to do with it. “No euro. I don’t want the euro. We don’t want the euro here,” Babis said Friday in an interview on the sidelines of the reSITE cities conference in Prague. “Everybody knows it’s bankrupt. It’s about our sovereignty. I want the Czech koruna, and an independent central bank. I don’t want another issue that Brussels would be meddling with.” Source Bloomberg
BP (BP.L) will continue producing hydrocarbons for decades to come and will benefit from rising oil prices even as it reduces output as part of its shift to low-carbon energy, Chief Executive Bernard Looney told Reuters on Tuesday. Source Reuters
Natural gas prices on European spot markets climbed to $360 per 1,000 cubic meters and continue growing on the back of high demand and low reserves in underground gas storages. The price is almost $100 above the February maximum, Gazprom told reporters on Wednesday. Source Tass
Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas project will start preparations on Friday to fill the first of two pipelines with natural gas within a few months, the Gazprom-led project said on Thursday. Nord Stream 2, which runs on the bed of the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany, bypassing Ukraine, has faced criticism from the United States, which says it will increase European reliance on Russian gas. Source Reuters
