Putin's decree imposed an obligation on EU gas buyers to open at least two special accounts - one for euros or dollars and one for roubles - with Gazprombank and channel all gas payments through the bank.

China has increased its pipeline gas imports from Russia to 43 million cu m/day or around 15 Bcm/year since December 2021,

China's crude imports in the first quarter averaged 10.41 million b/d, down 8.1% year on year.

Algeria will gradually provide increasing volumes of gas to Italy from 2022, up to 9 bcm/year in 2023-24.

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories increased by 9.4 million barrels to 421.8 million barrels.

For 2022, world oil demand growth is revised down by 0.5 mb/d to stand at 3.7 mb/d, mostly reflecting the downward revision in world economic growth. Oil demand growth is forecast at 1.9 mb/d in the OECD and 1.8 mb/d in the non-OECD.

Even before the Ukraine war had Europe scrambling for alternatives for Russia's oil and natural gas, Qatar's ambitions to grow its LNG business were coinciding with burgeoning energy demand by western countries amid the recovery from the pandemic.

Germany and Europe's dependence on Russian natural gas supplies cannot be eliminated in the short term without considerable economic damage.

Up until now, Europe has not announced an energy emergency plan. However, the latest figures show that Europe's gas storage capacity is only 26% full.

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories increased by 2.4 million barrels to 412.4 million barrels.

Fuel oil represented the bulk of the exports to China, with 394,200 mt exported, 43.6% higher on the month. Diesel exports recorded similar growth of 39.5% to 343,100 mt. Bitumen and residue amounted to 18,700 mt, marking a 34.9% increase on February. Overall, 756,900 mt of oil products headed to China last month.

Europe's largest economy is heavily dependent upon Russia for energy, and nations banks echoed concerns over possible energy disruption expressed by big names in industry in recent days.

The first 90 million barrels will be released between May and July, through two notices of sale totaling 70 million barrels, and 20 million barrels already scheduled to be released in May 2022.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an order March 31 prohibiting supply of Russian gas to countries that have imposed sanctions against Moscow if they refuse to pay for imports in rubles.

We imported from Russia just 0.419 million mt in the April-December period of the current fiscal year 2021-22 (April-March). That is just 0.2% of the total requirement.