A flagship Russian gas project may soon test Moscow’s newfound willingness to cede greater control of its energy assets to Beijing in exchange for much-needed Chinese financing.

The gas war between Russia and the West has been limited to the verbal so far and not seen any casualties except for the cancellation of the South Stream project.

Large quantities of shale gas, tight gas and coalbed methane are being discovered and extracted in the vast Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB), which covers southwestern Manitoba, southern Saskatchewan, Alberta (AB), northeastern British Columbia (BC) and the southwest corner of the Northwest Territories.

Imports from the European Union (EU) will drop because Russian gas is now competitive, according to state-run NAK Naftogaz Ukrainy. Flows from Slovakia, the EU’s biggest supplier to Ukraine, may fall by a quarter from May, Tomas Marecek, the chairman of Slovak grid operator Eustream, said.

Russian natural gas accounts for roughly a third of all foreign supplied natural gas coming into Europe. Russia’s biggest partner is Germany. In that state, Russia’s presence is on the upswing.

EIA expects the United States to be a net natural gas exporter by 2017.

Total said it may take advantage of the slump in crude to make acquisitions that build on the strengths of Europe’s third-biggest oil company in deepwater offshore fields and liquefied natural gas (LNG).

In the latest report on Croatia, the European Commission has warned that Croatian Law on the gas market does not encourage competition, and that such a situation could jeopardize further integration into the European energy market, as well as projects such as the LNG terminal on the island of Krk.

The US should remove the national interest demonstration requirement for LNG exports to countries with which it does not have a free-trade agreement before it loses one of its biggest energy and economic opportunities in its history, anExxonMobil Corp. executive said.

Russia has a five year window, at best, to successfully enter the global LNG markets and even that window is closing fast. That sentiment was the major takeaway from the recent Russian LNG Congress in Moscow.