Germany, Russia's top client in Europe, said some subsidiaries of Gazprom Germania were receiving no gas because of the sanctions.

The monthly import profile for April, which following European wholesale front-month trade in March, saw sourcing from all parts of the world intensify, with Europe comfortably receiving its highest-ever volume for a single month. This was, however, paid for at a high price.

Global LNG import volumes reached 372.3 million tons, a rise of 16.2 million tons from 2020,

Both the companies will work together in areas of blue and green hydrogen and various clean energy initiatives, according to a statement.

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories increased by 8.5 million barrels to 424.2 million barrels.

Brent down $2.26, or 2.1%, to $105.25 a barrel, WTI fell $2.45, or 2.3%, to $103.26 a barrel.

Moscow has imposed sanctions on the owner of the Polish part of the Yamal pipeline that carries Russian gas to Europe, as well as Gazprom's former German unit, whose subsidiaries help meet Europe's gas consumption.

Requests via the Velke Kapusany border point in Slovakia were around 512,056 megawatt hours (MWh) per day, down from 856,922 MWh per day earlier on Thursday, data from Slovakian operator TSO Eustream showed.

"We will cooperate to reduce Europe's dependency on energy supplies from Russia and to ensure diversification of energy supply sources, and acknowledge the need for investments to achieve this."

The Nuward - consisting of a 340 MWe SMR plant with two pressurised water reactors (PWRs) of 170 MWe each - has been jointly developed using France's experience in PWRs.