REUTERS - “This trade war is slowing down and destroying economic growth - and it creates new uncertainties,” Altmaier told Bild am Sonntag newspaper, adding that consumers suffered the most because higher tariffs were driving up prices.

PLATTS - Russian state-owned gas producer and transporter Gazprom filed a complaint with the WTO about the legislation in April 2014, arguing Russian infrastructure was being treated unfairly. Since then, constraints on access to OPAL have been lifted, resulting in flows via Nord Stream increasing to full capacity of 155 million cu m/day. The decision is therefore not expected to be market moving.

PLATTS - Natural gas demand from US LNG export terminals is set to double over the next year as a spate of new liquefaction projects now nearing completion enters service.

NGW - Commercial conditions for the Southern Corridor’s success have deteriorated as political support for it has grown. Up to 2030, the corridor will most likely remain an insubstantial contributor to Europe’s gas balance.

PLATTS - EDF maintained its annual French nuclear output target of 395 TWh and reported further progress in the regulator-requested Creusot review of its entire nuclear fleet with 34 reactors now cleared and 48 files submitted to the ASN by July 30.

NYT - Demand for natural gas — a cleaner-burning fossil fuel than coal or oil — is rising worldwide, and the United States is a growing supplier of liquefied natural gas, or L.N.G. The European Union, meanwhile, wants to diversify its energy supply, which remains somewhat dependent on Russia, with which it has a difficult relationship.

PLATTS - "I have not seen this bill, we need to study it from a legal point of view, but based on what the media has written about it, this is, in my opinion an absurd bill that offsets all market rules," Novak told journalists, Prime reported.

REUTERS - Two thirds said they supported the construction of the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline because it would help provide Germany with a more reliable supply of natural gas.

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.