Ukraine-Russia Crisis

The U.S. government has for the first time directly imposed sanctions against Russian LNG production as part of a broader package of restrictions aimed at undermining the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.  The U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned PAO Novatek’s Arctic LNG 2 project in Russia’s Arctic, which is aiming to start-up its first train…

Japan is looking to further diversify its LNG supply to shore up energy security as sanctions against Russian terminals, labor strikes in Australia and now a conflict in the Middle East, provide more threats for the global LNG market. “The Group of Seven (G7) Partners are committed to working jointly to deny Russia future energy…

European Union (EU) natural gas storage levels could reach 90% capacity by the end of August, or two months ahead of the Nov. 1 target set by regulators, leaving Europe with too much gas and a shortage of space underground to store any more.  As a result, an offer from Ukraine earlier this year to…

Turmoil in Russia had little impact on U.S. natural gas prices early this week, traders said, but the uncertainty it infused into an already tenuous global energy outlook raised the specter of supply interruptions and market volatility in the months ahead. Over the past weekend, the Wagner private military group, until recently aligned with the…

The European Union’s (EU) plans to significantly increase LNG import capacity continues to draw mixed opinions and raise concerns over whether the expansion would conflict with decarbonization targets and aspirations to dramatically boost renewable energy supplies this decade. To bring in enough LNG to gain independence from Russian natural gas, the EU aims to increase…

Germany’s Uniper SE and Finland’s Fortum Ojy disclosed Russia has seized their subsidiaries in the country and placed them under federal control. President Vladimir Putin signed an executive decree Tuesday allowing Russia’s state property management agency to control Uniper’s Unipro and Fortum’s PAO Fortum. Both companies operate power plants in Russia and are majority owned…

Natural gas demand in the European Union (EU) has dropped significantly over the last eight months, surpassing a voluntary target to cut consumption that was adopted by the bloc last August, according to data released by Eurostat. The EU’s statistical office said natural gas consumption dropped by 17.7% between August 2022 and March, compared with…

If European Union (EU) countries decide to limit Russian LNG imports, the decision could result in potentially disruptive outcomes for global natural gas markets, according to analysts. Last month, European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson urged EU members and companies to stop buying Russian liquified natural gas, and not to sign any new gas contracts…

European Union (EU) regulators this week updated their methodology for assessing spot LNG transactions on the continent just weeks before the bloc rolls out a benchmark aimed at improving price transparency. The EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) said there were periodically insufficient eligible spot transactions to calculate price assessments for both…