Despite Europe’s desire to loosen its reliance on Russian gas, the shale revolution has turned out to be a dud. Difficult geological conditions, fierce environmental opposition, cumbersome regulations and a bloody war in Ukraine have conspired to quash investors’ enthusiasm and wear down their patience. The collapse of oil prices to less than $50 a barrel in March was the final straw because the cost of much of Europe’s gas, including Russian imports, is linked to crude.

The crisis in Ukraine highlighted the need for Europe to tighten energy links among member states and cut its dependence on Russia, which supplies 27% of the bloc’s natural gas. To ensure that intergovernmental agreements with Russia don’t breach EU law, the regulator should vet their content during negotiations and not just before deals are adopted.

Britain's largest energy supplier Centrica (CNA.L) has signed new gas contracts with two of the world's largest producers, Russia's Gazprom and Norway's Statoil, reflecting the UK's growing dependence on gas imports as its production declines.

Russia is preparing to sell his recently purchased North Sea gas fields.

The United States, wading into the international efforts to shape Greece’s economic and geopolitical orientation, is pushing the leftist government in Athens to resist Russia’s energy overtures.

Condensate is especially important now because it’s not covered by sanctions on Russia’s oil industry that have targeted Arctic drilling and shale projects. Production of the ultra- light crude will swell as much as 17% this year, according to estimates by Gazprombank. That makes it a key factor driving growth, said Alexander Nazarov, an analyst at the country’s third biggest lender.

A flagship Russian gas project may soon test Moscow’s newfound willingness to cede greater control of its energy assets to Beijing in exchange for much-needed Chinese financing.

The gas war between Russia and the West has been limited to the verbal so far and not seen any casualties except for the cancellation of the South Stream project.

Last December Moscow took Europe by surprise with an announcement that South Stream, a 63 billion cubic metre (bcm) pipeline designed to bring Russian natural gas to southern Europe across the Black Sea would be scrapped and replaced with a pipeline of similar capacity that would cross Turkey and stop at its border with Greece.

Imports from the European Union (EU) will drop because Russian gas is now competitive, according to state-run NAK Naftogaz Ukrainy. Flows from Slovakia, the EU’s biggest supplier to Ukraine, may fall by a quarter from May, Tomas Marecek, the chairman of Slovak grid operator Eustream, said.