UK-based research and development company Innovative Physics Ltd (IPL) and China Environmental Protection Company Ltd (CEPC) have signed an agreement on technologies and skills to further improve the safety of nuclear power plants in China and overseas.

Energy and Clean Growth Minister Chris Skidmore said: "Coal is fast becoming the fossil of our energy system and it will soon be confined to the history books. To ensure this happens as soon as possible, we have committed to phasing out coal entirely by 2025."

The Strait of Hormuz, located between Oman and Iran, connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. The Strait of Hormuz is the world's most important oil chokepoint because of the large volumes of oil that flow through the strait. In 2018, its daily oil flow averaged 21 million barrels per day (b/d), or the equivalent of about 21% of global petroleum liquids consumption.

"Over the next five years we will do everything necessary to become truly energy independent: we will unite our power grids with the European ones, integrate into the European energy market, increase oil and gas production and create conditions for the development of alternative energy sources. Together with the energy saving program this will make our economy more efficient and will give impetus to the development of Ukraine," the head of state said during a meeting with the business community in Kyiv.

More than a third of Europe’s gas comes from Russia, and most of that goes through Ukraine’s Soviet-era pipelines. Ukraine has proposed that the European Union store as much as 4 billion cubic meters of gas in its underground storage facilities to guarantee security of supply for eastern European countries heavily reliant on Russian gas, pipeline operator Ukrtransgaz said this week.

Gazprom's 10-year transit deal with Ukraine's Naftogaz expires on December 31 this year, with some in the European gas market becoming increasingly concerned that there could be disruption to Russian gas flows via Ukraine as a result.

Holtec International, Ukraine's Energoatom and the country's State Scientific and Technology Centre (SSTC) have formally entered into a partnership to advance the US company's SMR-160 small modular reactor for deployment in Ukraine.

Saipem, in joint venture with McDermott International and Chiyoda Corporation, has reached agreement with Area 1 concessionaires on an EPC contract to engineer and construct an onshore LNG project in Mozambique.

The United States has strongly criticised Nord Stream 2, a 11 billion euro ($12.4 billion) project to build a gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, which opponents fear will undermine Ukraine’s gas transit revenues and increase the EU’s reliance on Russian gas.

UK oil production rose by nearly 9% on the year in the first quarter of 2019 to 1.18 million b/d, continuing a half-decade revival and beating industry expectations, government statistics released Thursday showed.