Brent fell 35 cents, or 0.4%, to $81.27 a barrel, WTI declined 35 cents, or 0.5%, to $76.14 a barrel.

The US placed Arctic LNG 2 under direct sanctions in November, in effect blocking its allies from buying the project’s gas when it starts production. The move followed an EU ban on the transfer of LNG-related technology to Russia in April 2022, two months after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The interest in additional supplies from China — the world’s biggest LNG importer — is emerging after a drop in spot prices made the fuel more cost competitive with local gas options and oil products,

China saw a robust increase in its peak power demand in 2021-2022 due to an increase in the prevalence of air conditioners amid exceptionally intense heat waves. This prompted an enhancement of more coal-based power generation capacity as a "costly and suboptimal solution,"

SEFE’s trading of Russian LNG is controversial in Berlin, where lawmakers have urged the company to sever its links with Moscow. Germany opposes LNG imports from Russia, though it hasn’t banned them.

The government on Wednesday slashed its growth forecast for this year to 0.2% from 1.3%, after a contraction in 2023.

Venezuela and Russia have discussed nuclear energy cooperation in the past, with a civil nuclear cooperation agreement signed in October 2010 providing for the construction of two 1200 MWe reactors and a research reactor to produce radioisotopes.

At the start of the month,we saw #Crudeoil longs data jump 17%, partly offsetting wrong-footed sales the previous week.Russia stated that the cut of 500k b/d to meet the quota expectations for the month of February as part of a package of cuts promised by the OPEC+.

Brent rose 30 cents or 0.36% to $82.64 a barrel, WTI were up 26 cents or 0.34% at $77.30.

Europe risks losing out to China and the US in the race to supply the technologies needed to roll out renewables and slash industrial emissions.

“The European Commission’s carbon capture ambition is significant at ~450 million tonnes of CO2 by 2050, of which around 40% will come from direct air capture (DAC) alone, the most expensive carbon capture process.

While the outlook is weak, the bank said it expects no major deterioration in the labour market, which has insulated the economy so far, and Germany was not facing a broad-based, prolonged recession.

The year 2024 is projected to be a potential turning point for the power industry, as it could witness a significant shift towards renewable energy.

In 2024, Energy consumers have more questions about the state of the Energy Industry's current initiatives than answers. Some areas to focus on include decarbonization, technology implementation, energy storage, and emergency responses.

The construction of two 1200 MWe Hualong One reactors as Phase I of the Jinqimen plant was approved by China's State Council at a meeting on 29 December last year.