The group was forced in August to abandon plans to split the cost of the 1,200km Nord Stream 2 pipeline under the Baltic Sea with the project’s European partners Engie, OMV, Wintershall, Shell and Uniper.

Crude oil flows from the Kirkuk fields in northern Iraq were briefly disrupted on Thursday after a Kurdish faction seized a pumping facility in protest at the policies of Baghdad and Erbil, adding a new threat to Iraq’s attempts to comply with Opec’s agreed cuts.

The LUKOIL Group oil production for the fourth quarter and twelve months of 2016 was 22.7 and 92.0 million tonnes, respectively. Production for the fourth quarter excluding compensation crude oil from West Qurna-2 project in Iraq increased by 2.5% compared to the third quarter of 2016.

Russia has enough reserves to remain Europe’s main gas provider for years to come, President Vladimir Putin said in December. “Gazprom is supplying more gas to Europe than Russia or the Soviet Union ever did,” he said. “We have enough gas for ourselves, even considering the growing requirements of the Russian economy, and for our counteragents, the buyers of our gas.”

Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 1.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016. In the third quarter, real GDP increased 3.5 percent.

Iran will begin exporting 100,000b/d of crude oil to Russia within the next two week, Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh said.

It was noted that Gazprom’s gas supplies to the German market had reached a record of 49.8 billion cubic meters in 2016. The upward trend in gas demand continues in early 2017. In January, gas exports grew by 23.2 per cent versus the corresponding month of 2016. Between February 1 and February 15, gas deliveries added 37 per cent compared to the same period of last year.

Gazprom and CNPC broadening strategic cooperation in energy sector

Oil supplies fell by around 1.5 million barrels per day last month, including by 1 million bpd for OPEC, leading to record initial compliance of 90 percent with a six-month output-cut deal reached in December by big producers to boost prices.

Now the human drama watch begins; will Putin cave in to the demands of the West to renounce his allies in exchange for the improved relation and the dropping of sanctions?