PLATTS - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said there is significant potential for energy cooperation with Qatar, after the Middle Eastern LNG giant's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani announced plans to invest Eur10 billion ($11.5 billion) in the German economy over the next five years.

FT - The German official welcomed an agreement reached earlier this month between the Caspian littoral states — Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan — on a legal framework for sharing the Caspian, the world’s largest inland body of water.

REUTERS - “This trade war is slowing down and destroying economic growth - and it creates new uncertainties,” Altmaier told Bild am Sonntag newspaper, adding that consumers suffered the most because higher tariffs were driving up prices.

PLATTS - Germany has added over 2 GW of new solar capacity over the past year as the rebound for the sector accelerates and annual additions are on track for the strongest growth since 2013, the latest monthly data from the federal grid regulator showed

AN - China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) is willing to invest $3 billion in its existing oil and gas operation in Nigeria, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said on Sunday following a meeting with the Chinese in Abuja.

IMF - Higher oil prices and short-term portfolio inflows have provided relief from external and fiscal pressures but the recovery remains challenging. Inflation declined to its lowest level in more than two years. Real GDP expanded by 2 percent in the first quarter of 2018 compared to the first quarter of last year. However, activity in the non-oil non-agricultural sector remains weak as lower purchasing power weighs on consumer demand and as credit risk continues to limit bank lending.

REUTERS - The Republican president, in Brussels for the NATO summit, took a swipe at Germany for supporting a new pipeline for Russian gas, saying at a pre-summit meeting: “We’re supposed to be guarding against Russia and Germany goes out and pays billions and billions of dollars a year to Russia.”

BLOOMBERG - The $10 billion refinery, set to be one of the world’s largest and process 650,000 barrels of crude a day, should be near full capacity by mid-2020, Edwin Devakumar, group executive director at Dangote Industries Ltd., said in an interview at the coastal site, about an hour’s drive east of Lagos.

IMF - Germany’s economic performance was strong in 2017, underpinned by solid domestic demand and a rebound in exports in the second half of the year. Despite a slowdown in public consumption due to the stabilization of refugee-related expenditures, real GDP grew by 2.5 percent.

GAZPROM - The meeting highlighted that Germany continued to ramp up its imports of Russian gas. According to preliminary data, from January 1 through June 19, 2018, Gazprom supplied Germany with 28.2 billion cubic meters of gas, an increase of 13.1 per cent from the same period of 2017.