REUTERS - Germany has been assured by the United States that any sanctions imposed on Russia will not affect the building of a gas pipeline to bring Russian gas to Europe, a spokeswoman for the German economy ministry said on Friday.

OGJ - Sandra Oudkirk, deputy assistant secretary for energy diplomacy at the US Department of State, confirmed that the Trump administration has received several requests to sanction the proposed Gazprom-sponsored pipeline that would extend from Russia beneath the Baltic Sea to Germany.

REUTERS - Washington was focused on using diplomatic means to halt Nord Stream 2, one of several Russian projects to export gas to western Europe via routes avoiding Ukraine, with which Moscow is involved in a series of disputes.

REUTERS - A consortium of western companies and Russia’s Gazprom that is due to build the controversial subsea Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany said on Tuesday it was starting preparatory work in the Greifswald bay off Germany’s Baltic coast.

PLATTS - "Since 2013-2014 we have seen a rapid drop off in investment which we believe will bite the consumers and the industry as a whole," Falih said at a media briefing at the International Energy Forum. "We are trying to signal to the market, to the investors, to the financial community, to international oil companies to put investments back into the upstream."

GAZPROM - Nord Stream 2 AG received the second permit required for the construction and operation of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in the Finnish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), thereby completing the permitting procedure in Finland.

PLATTS - Maintaining a long-term oil management alliance with Russia and other allies will allow OPEC producers to react more quickly to changing fundamentals and stabilize the market,

PLATTS - Russia is willing to work with the OPEC coalition indefinitely to regulate global oil supplies and has advocated the creation of a new global body to monitor crude markets, the country's energy minister said.

PLATTS - OPEC oil output in March fell to 32.14 million b/d, its lowest level in 11 months, led by declines in seven out of the 14 member countries,

WNN - The $20 billion project to build the four-unit, 4800 MWe plant is part of Erdogan's '2023 Vision' marking 100 years since the founding of modern Turkey and is intended to reduce the country's dependence on energy imports. The first unit is scheduled to start operations that year, with the other three units following by 2025. The plant is expected to meet about 10% of Turkey's electricity needs.