DGKV is pleased to announce that Milan Pandev, Partner and Head of DGKV’s Energy & Utilities Practice, participated as a speaker at the Oil and Gas Conference 2026, organized by the Balkan and Black Sea Petroleum Association. The event took place on 23–24 April in Vienna, Austria, bringing together senior representatives from across the regional and international energy sector, including leading companies, transmission system operators, and legal and regulatory experts.

This year’s conference featured high-level discussions across several key thematic tracks, including Upstream and Supply, Oil & Gas Markets, Legal and Regulatory Frameworks, Energy Transition and Digitalisation, and Risk Management and Price Hedging. The conference hosted a distinguished lineup of speakers representing major industry players and advisory firms. Speakers addressed a broad range of topical issues, including:

• Black Sea gas exploration and regional upstream developments
• EU regulatory, competition, and tax changes impacting energy markets
• Global gas and LNG dynamics shaped by geopolitics
• Security of supply and evolving European gas infrastructure
• Market liberalization and shifting supply routes in CEE and SEE

During his session, Milan Pandev focused on the legal and regulatory challenges associated with the role of the special commercial manager of the Lukoil companies in Bulgaria, with particular emphasis on:

• the intrinsic conflict between the special commercial manager’s role as a necessary shield to protecting critical infrastructure and its effect as a barrier to strategic transactions;
• the appointment and powers of the special commercial manager;
• the influence of the special commercial manager on strategic transactions
• the exit problem associated with the end of the special commercial managers’ mandate.

The discussions highlighted the rapid transformation of Europe’s gas landscape, driven by new supply opportunities, evolving regulation, geopolitical pressures, and the push for greater market integration and security of supply.