Gazprom and CNPC discuss future Russian Gas Supplies to China
Gazprom reported that the heads of Russia's Gazprom, and China's CNPC, discussed future Russian gas deliveries to China in Beijing during their talks. Moscow is seeking stronger ties with China, which is the world's largest energy consumer. Since the beginning of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, Russia, which holds the world's largest reserves of gas, has diverted oil from Europe to India, and China. Gleichzeitig, the diversification of Russian pipeline natural gas imported from the European Union is slow. The Power of Siberia Pipeline began exporting gas to China at the end of 2019.
SEFE signs 3-year contract with ADNOC for LNG supply
SEFE, a German company, has signed a deal with ADNOC of the United Arab Emirates for liquefied gas. Deliveries are expected to start in 2025. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, SEFE (Securing Energy for Europe), a state-owned company, seeks long-term supply agreements after losing most its Russian pipeline gas supplies in 2022. The agreement, valued at $400 million, is based on the Das Island liquefaction plant of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC). Both companies said that they wanted to strengthen their long-term relationship with energy partners.
EBRD lends Moldova 400 million euros for energy security
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development announced on Tuesday a 400 million euro loan ($468 million) to the state-owned energy company Energocom of Moldova for purchasing gas and electricity on European markets in order to increase energy security for the country. This follows the decision of Russian energy giant Gazprom, which halted gas deliveries to Moldova in this year due to unpaid debt. The new package consists a 300 million euro senior working capital loan to Energocom for energy purchases, and 100 millions euros of guarantees that will be issued by the EBRD to eligible EU suppliers.
Greece's DEPA signs out-of-court agreement with Gazprom on gas prices
DEPA Commercial, the Greek gas supplier, announced on Tuesday that it had reached an agreement outside of court in its dispute with Gazprom regarding gas prices. DEPA signed with Gazprom a contract in January 2022 for 2 billion cubic meters of gas annually through 2026. The price was 80% index to the Dutch TTF benchmark price, with the remaining 20% index to oil prices. DEPA, however, struggled to sell gas in 2022 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The drop in Russian pipeline deliveries also contributed to a rise in European gas prices. Eventually DEPA was unable accept its minimum annual quantities.
Gazprom wins partial gas price war, but Orlen could owe up to $290 million
Orlen, a Polish oil and gas firm, could be hit with a bill for almost $300 million after deciding that Gazprom has the right to charge higher prices retroactively on gas supplied to Poland. Orlen is a brand of Orlen. The Polish gas monopoly PGNiG, which will be in 2022 and is involved in several disputes with Gazprom at an arbitration tribunal in Stockholm regarding the prices Poland paid for Russian Gas from 2017 to 2020. Gazprom has been involved in numerous legal disputes with European companies. According to calculations, the total claims from these companies is at least 20 billion euros (17 billion dollars).
Russian LNG exports dropped 4.4% year-on-year in January to June, according to data
LSEG's preliminary data on Wednesday showed that Russia's liquefied gas exports in the first six months of this year fell by 4.4% compared to a year ago, reaching 15.2 million metric tonnes. This was despite international sanctions over Ukraine. The United States, in particular, has imposed sanctions against companies and vessels connected to Russia's Arctic LNG 2 plant due to the conflict in Ukraine. This effectively freezes the project as Moscow is unable find buyers. U.S. president Donald Trump said that he wanted the European Union (EU) to buy more U.S. LNG, and he would make it more available.
Source: Russian government talks tax relief for Gazprom
A government source revealed on Monday that the Russian government is considering tax reliefs for the energy giant Gazprom. These could be offset by higher taxes on gas producers in general. Novatek and Rosneft, two other major gas producers in Russia, are also listed. Moscow must balance the need for increased military spending in the face of the conflict in Ukraine, with the rising budget deficit as well as providing adequate support to Gazprom which has seen its lucrative sales into Europe fall. Gazprom lost almost $7 billion dollars in 2023. This was its first loss in over 20 years.
EU envoys are expecting to resolve the blockage of new Russia sanctions by this week
Diplomats from the European Union said that they expected to reach an agreement during a summit of the EU this week regarding an 18th package against Russia. Slovakia and Hungary use it as a bargaining tool for concessions about Russian energy. The European Commission proposed the package to encourage Russia to negotiate with Ukraine a ceasefire after EU leaders demanded "massive sanction" in May. The package targets Russia's energy revenue by naming banks and hitting the shadow tanker fleet. Hungary and Slovakia…
According to Russia's spy agency, Serbia sold ammunition via Bulgaria and Czech Republic to Ukraine
Russia accused Serbia of selling artillery to Ukraine via Eastern Europe through intermediaries, the second time in a week that it has made such an accusation against its traditional Balkan allie. The Russian Foreign Intelligence Agency, SVR, posted a statement on its website in which it said that two Serbian companies had sold rockets or mortar shells to multiple rocket launchers, as well as components for these rockets, via two companies located in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria. Both Bulgaria and Czech Republic are members of NATO and the European Union and provide weapons and ammunition to Ukraine.
Gazprom says that the US and Chinese purchases of strategic reserves may offset Russia's oil surplus.
The head of Russian oil producer Gazprom said that the U.S., China and other countries' purchases of strategic oil reserves will offset any global surplus to keep oil prices in check. The eight members, who are OPEC+ and include Russia and other producers, have decided to increase production for the months of April, July and August. Alexander Dyukov CEO of Gazprom, the oil arm from Russian energy giant Gazprom, stated that OPEC+'s production growth is not likely to cause a market overstocking in the near future. He told journalists in Saint Petersburg that he did not expect it to have any impact on prices. He said that the new U.S.
The EU's plans to ban Russian gas
The European Commission proposed Tuesday legally binding measures to end the European Union's imports from Russia of gas and liquefied gas by the end 2027. This would put an end to decades-old energy relationships with Europe's ex-top gas supplier. The details of the proposals are below. They still require approval by EU countries and the European Parliament. The ban will be implemented in phases. The EU will first ban imports of Russian gas and LNG under any new deals signed by the end this year. From June 17, 2026 the EU will ban imports of short-term contracts for contracts signed prior to June 17, 2025.
Austria: EU should resume Russian gas imports in the event of peace in Ukraine
An Austrian official told Brussels that the European Union would be willing to resume Russian gas imports in the event of a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine. The European Commission will propose legal measures to implement the ban on Tuesday, with the goal of ending the EU's dependence on Russian energy before the end of 2027. Elisabeth Zehetner told reporters that Austria's junior energy minister would be weighing all the proposals before deciding on a position. Zehetner stated on Monday that it was clear that the situation would be different when the war ended.
Austria: EU should consider returning to Russian gas in the event of peace in Ukraine
An Austrian official told Brussels that the European Union would be willing to resume Russian gas imports if there was a future peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine. The European Commission will propose legal measures to implement the ban on Tuesday, with the goal of ending the EU's dependence on Russian energy before the end of 2027. Elisabeth Zehetner (Austria's State Secretary for Energy) told reporters Monday that the country would be weighing all of the proposals before deciding on its position. EU diplomats said Zehetner…
Taiyo Oil Buys First Russian Crude In More Than Two Years
Japanese refinery Taiyo Oil has bought its first Sakhalin Blend crude from Russia in more than two years at the Japanese government's request, it said on Tuesday, to help ensure the stability of a plant also supplying Japan with liquefied natural gas.Japan last imported Russian crude in February 2023, trade data showed, after Tokyo agreed with other G7 countries to phase out imports in response to Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.China has since been the sole importer of Sakhalin Blend, but sanctions imposed by the former Biden administration in January on ice class tankers…
Russian LNG exports dropped 3% year-on-year in January to May, according to data
LSEG released preliminary data on Monday showing that Russia's LNG exports in the first five month of this year fell by 3% compared to a year ago, reaching 13,2 million metric tonnes. This is due to the impact of sanctions. Due to the conflict in Ukraine, the United States has placed sanctions on Russian companies and vessels that are linked with the new Arctic LNG 2 facility. This effectively freezes the project as Moscow is unable to find buyers. U.S. president Donald Trump said that he wanted the European Union (EU) to buy more U.S. LNG, and he would make it more available.
Gazprom's Q1 net profit reaches $8.4 billion
Gazprom, a Russian energy company, reported that its first-quarter net profit rose around 1% from the same period in the previous year. Sales and the rouble's exchange rate were also higher. Gazprom reported that the strengthening of the Russian rouble resulted in a profit thanks to the revaluation its foreign currency debt. Analysts attribute the rouble's rise of more than 40% this year against the dollar to easing tensions with the U.S. government since President Donald Trump returned to the White House, and the tight monetary policies of the Russian central banks, which have reduced demand for foreign currencies.
Serbia will investigate Russian allegations that it shipped arms to Ukraine
Aleksandar Vucic, the president of Serbia, said that Serbia and Russia would jointly investigate how Serbian-made ammunition ended up in Ukraine after Moscow accused Belgrade exporting weapons to the government of Kyiv. The SVR (Russian foreign intelligence service) accused Belgrade of a "stab in the back", alleging that Serbia's defence producers were selling weapons and ammunition to Ukraine. The SVR stated that Serbia sent arms to Ukraine via NATO intermediaries including the Czech Republic and Poland, as well some African countries.
TASS: Gazprom is working on a new gas contract with Serbia.
The Kremlin's energy giant Gazprom has been working on a gas supply contract for Serbia, according to TASS. Alexander Novak, Russia's Deputy Premier was quoted as saying this on Monday. Serbia, which has historically had close ties with Moscow, but aspires also to join the European Union is heavily dependent on Russia for its natural gas. It has been trying to renew the contract that expired in March. Since 2021, Russian gas is supplied to Serbia via the TurkStream pipeline through the Black Sea. Last year, Russia supplied around 3 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Serbia.
Documents show that Eni, an Italian company, delivered Russian gas to Turkey in the last year.
Eni supplied gas to Turkey last year, according to documents published on the Italian energy company's website on Monday. This confirms that the company is still dealing with Russian gas, despite the suspension of supplies within Europe. Documents show that in a response to a written question from an Eni shareholder, ahead of the AGM scheduled for Wednesday, the company stated that Algeria would be the largest gas supplier to the group by 2024. Norway and Russia were the next two biggest suppliers. According to Eni's written response, Russian gas accounted 12% of its total gas supplies.
TurkStream gas pipeline may slow down EU-Russia decoupling
May 7 - While the European Commission has announced a revised plan to wean Europe off Russian energy completely by 2027, some parts of Europe have taken the opposite approach. The TurkStream pipeline is not only still operating, but has expanded its gas supply. Since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, Russian gas exports have dropped dramatically. They went from more than 155 billion cubic meters (bcm), in 2021, to less than 40 bcm by 2024. In the same time period, Russian LNG exports to the EU almost doubled, reaching around 25 bcm. France, Belgium Spain and the Netherlands bought over 90% of these volumes.
