Russia's Sibanthracite group aims to boost the annual export capacity of Russian coals to 100 million mt with newly launched infrastructure project to build the second tunnel on Baikal Amur Mainline railway.

While Gazprom has said it’s looking at options to complete the pipeline, it hasn’t given any details on where it will find the ship to do the work. One of the pipeline’s financial backers, Austrian gas and oil company OMV AG, has predicted that the Russians will follow through.

The US on Tuesday imposed sanctions on Rosneft Trading SA, the Geneva-based subsidiary of the Russian state oil company, for supporting Venezuela's oil sector by continuing to trade with sanctions-hit PDVSA

The sanctions announced by the U.S. Treasury Department against Rosneft’s subsidiary RTSA and its Chairman are illegal, unjustified, and an act of legal abuse.

The $50-billion award was originally made in 2014 by The Hague Permanent Court of Arbitration after a claim was brought by three former shareholders in Yukos – Veteran Petroleum, Yukos Universal Ltd, and Hulley Enterprises Ltd.

Russia’s RDIF sovereign wealth fund said on Wednesday that Russian and Saudi companies have held discussions on possible joint projects as well as potential investment worth more than $10 billion.

The Ukrainian company's claims against the Russian state over the Crimea assets were left out of a settlement deal with Russia's Gazprom agreed at the end of December, which canceled out all existing arbitration claims by both parties as part of a new transit contract.

US imports of unfinished oils from Russia averaged 472,000 b/d in November, the most since May 2013, when the same amount of unfinished oils was imported from Russia.

Brent rose 24 cents, or 0.4%, to $55.17 a barrel, WTI were up 15 cents, or 0.3%, at $51.10 a barrel,

Russian energy minister Alexander Novak discussed bilateral energy cooperation with the US ambassador to Russia, John Sullivan, on Thursday, according to an energy ministry statement.