OPEC is due to meet in June, where the Iran question will no doubt be raised. But oil and gas leaders are taking a cautious approach, with Kuwait's oil minister Khaled Al Fadhel noting that a decision would be taken only after a review of oil prices.

Asked whether Iran’s oil could be removed from the market, Mr. Barkindo said: “No repetition is needed. Eliminating Iran from the oil market is impossible.”

Operators of Belarus, Ukrainian, Hungarian and Slovakian sections of troubled Druzhba network have agreed on technical measures to clean contaminated oil from part of the system and expect normal quality oil from Russia to start entering Belarus and Urkaine in the coming days, Ukrainian pipeline operator Ukrtransnafta said Tuesday.

The EU has long worked to diversify from relying on Russia for almost 40 percent of its gas needs by developing LNG infrastructure to access other suppliers. Qatar and Australia are other major LNG suppliers.

Nord Stream 2 is already waiting for the DEA to decide on permit applications for two different routes, and claims the request for a third route option is illegal.

Consistent with its statutory mandate, the Committee seeks to foster maximum employment and price stability. In support of these goals, the Committee decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 2-1/4 to 2-1/2 percent.

France's ambitious energy plan will require substantial investment efforts over the next few years. Against this backdrop, the French government has expressed a willingness to propose a new remuneration framework for the existing nuclear fleet - though the timing and details of such a regulatory change remain uncertain and remote. What's more, the French state has opened the option of increasing its stake in EDF (currently 83.7%) by as early as 2019. If, or indeed when, these developments are implemented it could be credit positive.

Profit attributable to the owners of PJSC Gazprom for the year ended December 31, 2018 amounted to RUB 1,456,270 million which is by RUB 741,968 million, or 104 %, more than for the year ended December 31, 2017.

For the first quarter, underlying replacement cost (RC) profit* was $2,358 million, compared with $2,586 million in 2018. Underlying RC profit is after adjusting RC profit* for a net charge for non-operating items* of $252 million and net adverse fair value accounting effects* of $11 million (both on a post-tax basis). RC profit was $2,095 million for the first quarter, compared with $2,389 million in 2018.

Royal Dutch Shell plc (the ‘company’) today announces the commencement of trading in the next tranche of its share buyback programme previously announced on July 26, 2018.