С 1 по 15 марта поставки относительно прошлого года увеличились в 9 европейских стран, в частности в Италию — на 51,7%, Польшу — на 71,8%, Хорватию — на 110,9%, Грецию — на 34,6%, Болгарию — на 24,4%; а также в Турцию — на 21,1%.

But getting Saudi Arabia and the UAE to agree to pump more crude would require them to break a more-than-five-year partnership with Russia that has forged strong ties beyond oil — an uncertain prospect as they increasingly look eastward for political allies.

BGR meanwhile, has represented the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline between Russia and Germany, and Uranium One, a mining company owned by the Russian state-owned nuclear corporation Rosatom.

Finance minister Shaukat Tarin told the Financial Times that a deal with Russia to build the multibillion-dollar Pakistan Stream pipeline “is almost done”.

Nuclear safety and security in Ukraine topped the agenda of the annual meeting, which was postponed since 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Mr Johnson said Russia’s president Vladimir Putin knew when he launched his invasion of Ukraine that “the world would find it very hard to punish him” because he had “created an addiction” to Russian energy.

The previous government last year sent security questionnaires to three potential bidders – Westinghouse of the US, France’s EDF and South Korea’s KHNP – after state corporations from China and Russia were excluded on security grounds.

The Aurora project, which will be located 20 km south of Gotland and 30 km east of Öland, consist of up to 370 turbines with a maximum height of 370 meters.

Brent were down $8.90, or 8.3%, to $98 a barrel, WTI was down $8.97, or 8.7%, to $94.04 a barrel.

In 2021, Russia was the largest natural gas-exporting country in the world, the second-largest crude oil and condensates-exporting country after Saudi Arabia, and the third-largest coal-exporting country behind Indonesia and Australia.