Europe Imports Record Russian LNG in H1 2026

Data from Kpler suggests Europe has imported 9.89 million tons of LNG from Russia's Yamal LNG field in H1 2026.

US sanctions on Lukoil and Rosneft

This includes secondary sanctions on companies that service them, including banks. Note that neither have significant assets in the US. 

Germany Banning Russian Oil Imports by End 2022

Germany has announced a ban on Russian oil imports, halving demand by summer and going to zero by winter.  

One quarter of Germany's oil imports currently come from Russia.  

Natural gas (40% of Germany's needs come from Russia) will be phased out post the oil ban. The 9.5 billion euro pipeline, Nord Stream 2, between Russia and Germany, will now no longer be used having been suspended 2 days before the Russian invastion of Ukraine on February 24th, by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (successor of Angela Merkel). 

Importing LNG is one option but has been tricky due to the lack of regasification facilities in Germany. The leasing of FSRUs in the short term (Floating Storage and Regasification Units) is one option being explored, and Wilhelmshaven, coastal town facing the North Sea, has been identified as one location.

Employers and unions have resisted an immediate energy import ban due to loss of jobs. The UK will also phase out Russian oil imports by the end of 2022. 

Separately, the EU announced a ban on Russian coal imports on 7 April which will take effect in August (Russia is Europe's largest supplier of thermal coal - which is used in coal-fired power stations).

US Natural Gas Exporters to Meet German Buyers

Meetings will take place in Berlin as Europe attempts to wean itself off Russian gas. Germany in particular depends on Russia for about 50% of its gas supplies making the American option important. LNG terminal developers in Germany are hoping this will help accelerate planning approvals.

Gazprom Approves $320m Financing for Turkish Natural Gas Pipeline

Gazprom has approved a three-and-a-half year loan to aid construction of the upcoming Turkish Stream (TurkStream) pipeline. The project was announced on December 2014 by Vladimir Putin on a state visit to Turkey. Turkey is regarded as a strategic bridge for energy between Central Asia and Europe. The pipeline will go from Russia's Krasnodar region, on the North Eastern edge of the Black Sea, to Turkish Thrace. Geographically, the Black sea has multiple countries on its edges, including Russia, Turkey and Ukraine, and Bulgaria, Romania and Georgia.

"Stabilising Inflation" Behind Russian Rate Cut to 15%

The Russian Central Bank has announced a rate cut from 17% to 15%, following which the rouble fell 2% against the dollar, making the dollar worth about 70 roubles. The IMF forecasts the Russian economy will contract by 3% in 2015 and 1% in 2016.

Russian and Ukraine Get Comfy with Gas Deal

Russia has agreed to supply Ukraine with gas till end of March 2015.  Just under one third of European gas comes from Russia, and half of that volume comes through Ukraine. The deal involves Ukraine making some advance payments to Russia for winter fuel.

Governors of Central Banks II

Brazil: Alexandre Tombini, has a PhD in Economics from University of Illinois, and Bachelors in Economics from the University of Brasilia. He is the head of the Banco Central do Brasil. The bank controls the economy via adjusting the SELIC rate (overnight borrowing rate), the SE standing for Sistema Especial.

Russia: The Russian Central Bank is led by Elvira Nabiullina who studied at Moscow State University. Its primary responsibility is to protect the stability of the Russian Ruble. It part-owns the Russian commercial bank Sberbank.

India: Raghuram Rajan (appointed in August 2013, for a three year term). BSc, IIT Delhi, Electrical Engineering, PhD in management from MIT in 1991. He has published a book called "Fault Lines" which won the Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award in 2010. He was the former Director of Research at the IMF. While at the IMF he published a paper entitled: "Has Financial Development made the World Riskier?"

UK: Mark Carney, also Chairman of the Financial Stability Board (FSB), has a PhD in Economics from Nuffield College, Oxford and was formerly Governor of the Bank of Canada.

China: (People's Bank of China), Zhou Xiaochuan, since 2002. His wife, Li Ling, is a senior member of China's Ministry of Commerce. He has introduced reforms to recruit "sea turtles" (overseas Chinese with experience of real capitalist markets).

Currency War and the Big Five Reservists

By buying dollars and other currencies, China holds down the value of the yuan and makes its exports more competitive. IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn does not like this and wants China to let the yuan appreciate, but China does not want to move too fast and hurt export businesses. China saves and exports, US spends and imports. This results in global imbalances.
Yuan in Chinese means round object or round coin. Difference between yuan and renminbi is like difference between Pounds and Sterling.
Last month South Korea's foreign reserves hit a record $290bn USD, the world's fifth. Who are the biggest? China, Japan, Russia and Taiwan. 80% of the world's largest FX reserve countries are in Asia. SK is one of the countries recovering fastest from the crisis. BoK estimates this year's growth to be 5.9%.

Creation of a Gas "OPEC" In Doha Sparks Controversy, Tangan nods towards Sinopec and Gazprom on the Warpath

Russia, the world's top gas exporter (and largest country in the world in terms of land area; over 17 million sq km, almost twice the size of the United States at 9.8 sq km), hosts the GECF forum for gas-producing countries (including Iran, Venezuela (a country borne from the collapse of Gran Colombia, the short-lived South American republic named after Christopher Columbus, in 1830) and Qatar), and proposes the creation of a permanent organization in Doha, Qatar, similar to OPEC. In the forum, Vladimir Putin announced "the era of cheap gas is coming to an end".

Russian state-owned Gazprom claims it is owed $2bn (£1.3bn) by Ukraine for gas supplies. This creates supply risk for the rest of Europe since 80% of Russia's exports go via Ukrainian pipelines to the rest of Europe. Gazprom is also nearing a deal to win a controlling stake in Serbia's state-owned oil monopoly Petroleum Industry of Serbia (NIS) and exploiting Siberian reserves in the Yamal Peninsula (the so-called "Yamal Megaproject"). Siberia has a population density of 3 people per square kilometre.

Venezuela is unique in that it has the world's largest reserves of heavy crude oil (which has a higher specific gravity (read density) than "conventional" crude) located in the Orinoco river ("Rio Orinoco"). Heavy crude is often priced at a discount to light crudes, due to high refining costs in the downstream processing. The field of reservoir engineering deals with the economic retrieval of hydrocarbons.

Reuters report here.

In other oil and gas events, the bid of Sinopec (China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation) for the Canadian Tanganyika Oil Company has been given a thumbs-up from Tangan's Board of Directors.