A U.S. regulatory judge ruled BP PLC manipulated the Texas natural gas market in 2008 and said fines against the British energy company could increase because the scheme took place after earlier market manipulation.

“Russia sits on 25% of the world’s gas reserves and is very, very close to markets that we are very familiar with,” Van Beurden said July 30, on the sidelines of the company’s earnings presentation. Shell is also pushing “to see how we can work with Gazprom internationally.”

The United States is now the world’s leading producer of natural gas. With LNG exports scheduled to begin within the next six months, America’s oil and gas renaissance will soon provide both substantial domestic and foreign economic benefits. If US LNG can be imported into regions where there is only a single, monopolistic producer, then strategic benefits could accrue as well.

In the medium term, Iran’s gas will not be able to compete with the Russian gas in the European market.

BP’s second-quarter replacement cost (RC) loss was $6,266 million, compared with a profit of $3,182 million a year ago.

There are indeed compelling reasons for Gazprom to do a deal. First market developments are rendering Gazprom’s existing business model irrelevant and it is that business model which is being substantially challenged in the antitrust case. Secondly, the consequences of an actual published EU competition decision against the company would be devastating in terms of reputation and scale of liability. Both these factors provide compelling incentives for Gazprom to file draft Commitments to the Commission to provide a basis for a deal.

BP swung to a $6.3 billion second quarter loss on Tuesday after write downs tied to the ongoing conflict in Libya and the company’s recent Deepwater Horizon settlement.

Fifteen nations, more than half of them from the former Soviet bloc, endorsed an action plan to improve energy infrastructure and ultimately to ensure each of them maintains three separate sources of supply. Ministers meeting in Dubrovnik, Croatia, with Maros Sefcovic, the European Commission’s vice president in charge of energy union, chose seven gas link projects that should be sped up and that may be eligible for financial support.

This month the head of the EBRD said the bank could invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Ukraine's energy sector this year, but that any investment would depend on Kiev implementing long-promised energy sector reforms.

Rotterdam, Europe's largest port, said on Thursday that plans to build a Russian-backed 3 million cubic meter oil storage terminal had been canceled after its Russian partner raised concerns over the project's feasibility.