China had surpassed the United States in oil imports. It’s true that overall, China’s oil composition growth has slowed, however, their new title does point to the fact that China will consume significant amounts of crude for years to come.

Europe may face deficit of gas imports of a total of 50 bln cubic meters in 2025, Gazprom Deputy Chairman Alexander Medvedev said Monday.

OAO Novatek announced Thursday that Novatek Gas & Power, a wholly owned trading subsidiary of Novatek, has signed a long-term contract with Shell International Trading Middle East for the supply of LNG from the Yamal LNG project.

Not quite as severe as in the UK, he says the trend is similar in the Netherlands, considering the decline in Groningen and the curtail in production: “Moving from a net exporter of gas to a net importer of gas.” The situation across the entire EU, according to Mr. Egan, is even worse, with the European Union importing 80% of its gas, forecast to get even worse.

The European Union last October reached an outline deal on three 2030 targets to cut emissions by at least 40 percent versus 1990, improve energy savings to at least 27 percent and to increase the share of renewable energy to 27 percent.

ConocoPhillips announced that is was withdrawing from shale gas exploration in Poland.

Oil & gas output from ultra-deepwater (>1,000m water depth) fields will continue the relentless growth seen in recent years. In the latest World Drilling & Production Forecast, Douglas-Westwood predict combined oil & gas production from such fields will grow 7.7% year-on-year over 2015-2021 from 6.5 mboe/d to 10.2 mboe/d.

If Greece withdraws from the Turkish Stream project, which is planned to transfer Russian natural gas to Europe via the Turkish-Greek border, the U.S. will expect the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to reward Greece.

U.S. Rig Count is down 7 rigs from last week to 868, with oil rigs down 4 to 642, gas rigs down 3 to 222, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 4.

Russia will begin importing Iranian oil under a long-heralded oil-for-goods barter arrangement in the coming week, Iran's oil minister was quoted as saying, more than a year after negotiations began.