Putin

President Vladimir Putin’s latest decree to stop sales of Russian energy assets, leaves the status and progress of Russia’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in disarray.  The decree takes full control of the 9.6 mmt/y Sakhalin-2 project in Russia’s far east. Shell plc has already said it plans to divest its 27.5% stake in the…

The European Commission (EC) on Wednesday released a plan to cut natural gas consumption by 15% until next spring, a day after Russia suggested it would resume natural gas deliveries on Nord Stream 1 (NS1) at a reduced rate. The continent has been girding for the possibility that flows might not resume on the major…

Denmark’s Energy Agency (DEA) has approved the Gazprom-led Nord Stream 2 consortium to lay its natural gas pipeline on the Danish continental shelf southeast of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea, the last remaining hurdle for the controversial project to reach completion.

The nomination of Rex W. Tillerson, the former chief of ExxonMobil Corp. as secretary of state, was favorably approved Monday afternoon in a roll call vote by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, after Republican committee holdout Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida withdrew his objections. Tillerson was expected to be confirmed easily by the GOP-led Senate.The vote divided along party lines, and the defection of even one GOP committee member could have denied Tillerson the committee’s favorable recommendation. Because of severe weather which delayed the arrival of some members by the meeting’s start at 4:30 p.m. EST, Chairman Bob Corker conducted a roll call vote, which affirmed Tillerson. However, the meeting was kept open to allow those members unable to attend to issue comments later in the evening.