OGJ - Sandra Oudkirk, deputy assistant secretary for energy diplomacy at the US Department of State’s Bureau of Energy Resources, said Nord Stream 2 matters to the US because it would cement a transportation system in place that could perpetuate dependence on Russian gas for some key US allies. “It would not increase the amount of gas coming into Europe, only replace volumes that now are being transported through Ukraine,” she said.

REUTERS - Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak told European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcofic in a phone conversation that gas transit would not be at risk until Gazprom and Naftogaz fully terminated their agreement.

GAZPROM - In early 2018, the demand for gas is still on the rise in the country. According to estimates, from January 1 through February 21, 2018, Gazprom delivered to Austria 1.8 billion cubic meters of gas, a rise of 60.6 per cent against the same period of 2017 (1.1 billion cubic meters).

REUTERS - “Europe completely miscalculated when they assumed that they won’t need much additional gas and if they need some it can be supplied from outside Russia,” Medvedev, who looks after exports for the world’s top gas producer and exporter, said.

REUTERS - Gazprom expects its average annual investment until 2035 to be capped at 1 trillion rubles ($17.5 billion).

REUTERS -Speaking at the European Gas Conference in Vienna, Gazprom Chairman Viktor Zubkov said the company’s share of the European gas market, where it generates the majority of its revenue, rose last year to a record high of more than 35 percent, from about 33 percent in 2016.

BLOOMBERG - The expansion of Russia’s gas pipeline to Germany under the Baltic Sea, which bypasses a number of east European nations, will allow the Kremlin to use energy as a “political tool,” U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in Warsaw.

GAZPROM - The TurkStream project is well underway. In accordance with the plan, it is carried out simultaneously at three sections: onshore in Russia and Turkey and offshore in the Black Sea.

BLOOMBERG - Ukraine imported 14 billion cubic meters of gas from the EU last year, comparable to Belgium’s annual consumption. From this year, state-owned NAK Naftogaz Ukrainy should import 5 billion cubic meters annually under its contract with Russia’s Gazprom PJSC through 2019, and has to pay for at least 80 percent of that, according to the court.

BLOOMBERG - Russia needs to strengthen its position in the global gas market as it’s considered a leading global energy power, President Vladimir Putin said last month. Already the world’s largest exporter of the fuel, the nation is working to boost output with new LNG plants stretching from the Baltic region to the Pacific coast. That will pit the country against the biggest producers of the super-chilled fuel, including Qatar and Australia.