Saudi Arabia has started shipping crude to traditional Russian markets like Poland and Sweden, but supplies to Europe from the world’s largest exporter won’t increase by enough to reduce prices. In contrast, a surge in Iranian exports after the lifting of sanctions could erode the value of Russian shipments to the region as soon as next year.

“Russia plays a central role in the question of how we Europeans can secure our energy supply,” Schroeder, whose friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin has been controversial in Germany, said at the Nov. 9 event. “Norway and Russia are the most secure and reliable energy partners for Europe.”

“Russia plays a central role in the question of how we Europeans can secure our energy supply. Norway and Russia are the most secure and reliable energy partners for Europe”, said the former German Chancellor.

The Saudi-Russian battle for Europe's crude oil buyers intensified this week as Swedish refiner Preem bought its first cargo of Saudi Arabian crude oil in around two decades, trading sources said.

“The efficiency of Japanese investments (alternative to those in Russia) is mostly very low. From what we know in the last 3 yeast Japanese firms faced almost 600 bln yen of write downs (around 6 bln USD) because of bad investments in projects associated with hard-to-recover hydrocarbons in US and Canada, and also because of unsuccessful projects in the North Sea. And this had to be done in a period of high oil prices! De-facto IRR for international upstream projects of INPEX by the end of 2014 was 3.1% (Wood Macikenzie estimates). This is around 4 times less than a standard revenue ratio”.

The Commission would assess it "rigorously against the European regulatory framework," it said, and the project would have to comply with environment, competition and public procurement rules.

Turkey said in February it struck a deal giving it a 10.25 percent price discount on gas from Russia's Gazprom but that accord was not signed and state pipeline operator Botas said last week it had appealed to the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) after months of fruitless talks. "An agreement was clinched on the 10.25 percent, therefore we are taking that as our base level, but will seek a higher discount at international arbitration," Alaboyun said in an interview.

"If both countries agree on the discount, progress can be achieved on the Turkish Stream Natural Gas Pipeline project, which both countries will benefit from economically"

Sakhalin II is one of the most successful export projects targeting the Asian-Pacific region. The key to success lies in integration: it is managed and operated by Sakhalin Energy Company and its shareholders: Gazprom (50% and 1 share), Shell (27.5% minus 1 share), Mitsui (12.5%), Mitsubishi (10%).

"This is no new idea. A Russian-Iranian bank existed in Soviet time though it was later liquidated. All details will be discussed after a principal decision is made. For now we’ve agreed that Iran’s delegation will visit Moscow particularly for discussing all details and issues related to its location, conditions of work, and equity capital. Separate talks will be held in the nearest future when a delegation comes to Moscow," the Minister said.