Russian oil giant Lukoil plans to acquire a 5 percent stake in the Ghasha offshore gas project in the UAE, according to CEO Vagit Alekperov.

The UK obtained 19% of its primary energy from low-carbon sources last year, with 39% of this from nuclear power, but this was 7% lower than in 2017 due to outages at Dungeness B and Hunterston B towards the end of 2018, official statistics published today show. Nuclear capacity was broadly the same as in 2017, at 9.3 GW.

Ukraine in January-June 2019 increased transit of natural gas through its gas transportation system (GTS) by 6.1% (by 2.591 billion cubic meters) compared to the same period of 2018, to 45.079 billion cubic meters, according to recent data from JSC Ukrtransgaz.

Ukraine and Russia have been in dispute over gas issues for years, which escalated after a pro-Russian leader of Ukraine was toppled in 2014.

The head of state-run energy firm Naftogaz, Andriy Kobolev, has said that Ukraine needs to increase its gas reserves by 18% this year to cover its winter needs and to guarantee transit to European consumers.

"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.

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.