“We believe Nord Stream 2 is a good project, it provides infrastructure for importing gas to the EU, which will need. Russia is a major gas supplier to the EU.”

While in Germany and Austria, the promoters of Nord Stream 2 are quite outspoken, in the Netherlands and France, there is recognizable, but more silent support in government circles. Here, as well, the main line of argu­mentation is based on the added value of infrastructure di­versification and the neutrality of political actors on eco­nomic activity in the market.

In 1Q 2016, LUKOIL Group total hydrocarbon production (including our share in equity affiliates) increased by 0.5% y-o-y and reached 214.2 mln boe. Crude oil and NGL production was 183 mln bbl (-0.2% y-o-y). On an organic basis (excluding the impact of divestment of certain producing assets in Kazakhstan in 2015), oil production was up by 0.6% y-o-y with production decline at mature fields in Western Siberia more than offset by an increase in production in Iraq and projects in Timan-Pechora, Ural region and Northern Caspian in Russia.

The closed transaction is symbolic for both the companies and marks transition to a new level of cooperation in the Russian-Indian relations in sphere of energy. ONGC gets substantial interest and relevant rights in one of the biggest large-scale projects of Rosneft of the last decade, whereas Rosneft retains major shares in the project and will operate on the field through the operator company RN-Vankor.

Russia’s crude production continuing to grow this year by around 100,000 b/d or even slightly above this figure. The growth is supported by investments made in previous years.

Russia's Gazprom plans to export a record 165 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas to Europe this year, the company's deputy chief executive Alexander Medvedev told reporters on Thursday.

It was the sixth time Russia has moved to the top spot as China's crude supplier, since capturing that spot for the first time in May, 2015.

Russia plans to increase oil production to 540 million tonnes (10.8 million bpd) or more this year, from 534 million tonnes in 2015.

Pertamina seeks a 51% stake in the venture to build a crude-oil refinery and petrochemical plants in eastern Java, with Russian state-controlled oil major Rosneft taking the remainder, Pertamina executives and Indonesian officials said. The refinery will be capable of processing 320,000 barrels of oil a day, and the complex will require $13 billion to $14 billion in investment, they said.

China's crude oil imports from Russia surged 52.4 percent in April from a year earlier to reach a record 1.17 million barrels per day (bpd), customs data showed on Monday, ahead of the previous record of 1.13 million bpd in December.