SOCHI (Russia), Sept 27: Eleven energy ministers warned on Wednesday of rising political and commercial risks to Europe’s energy markets as President Vladimir Putin issued a warning to ‘unconscientious’ investors.

“We note the recent developments in energy markets and the ever increasing potential risks of a political and commercial nature,” the 11 Black Sea-region ministers said.

“The reliability of access to energy (is) subject at this stage to challenges and threats of both a short-term and long-term nature,” they said in a statement.

The warnings after a two-day summit of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation organization (BSEC) came shortly after Russia rattled energy investors by threatening to shut down the world’s largest private oil and gas project.

Russia last week withdrew a crucial environmental permit for the $20 billion (15.8 billion euro) Sakhalin-2 project in the Russian far east, citing environmental violations by the foreign companies running the project.

Putin added a further warning on Wednesday, saying that the government would take action against companies that were too slow in developing their projects.—AFP