FT - “Resilience to the sanctions has been very high. Currently, we see no serious consequences,” said Tatiana Mitrova, director of the Skolkovo Energy Centre in Moscow. “It came as a big surprise to many.” 

REUTERS - Siemens said last year that it was reviewing aspects of its dealings with Russia after claiming that four of its power-generating turbines meant for southern Russia had been delivered to Crimea, which is subject to European sanctions on technology supplies after Russia annexed the region. In October, however, Siemens said it was ready to participate in the modernization of power plants in Russia.

GAZPROM - The parties discussed the state and prospects of strategic cooperation in the gas sector. Particular attention was paid to joint efforts in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) segment, especially the construction of the third train of the LNG plant within the Sakhalin II project.

PLATTS - "The increase in competition induced new practices in the market that resulted in imports returning to normal," Petrobras' Jorge Celestino said during a presentation of the company's 2017 financial results.

PLATTS - The objective of this program is to increase its domestic refinery utilization rates to 90% from current levels of 10-20%, Kragha said speaking to Platts in Cape Town on the sidelines of the African Refiner Association conference.

PLATTS - The company outlined plans Friday to increase its annual contracted LNG volume to 12 million mt a year by 2021 and to 14 million mt/year by 2025 from the 10 million mt/year envisioned in its previous 2017-20 plan.

PENNENERGY - Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy has secured orders for the supply of 39 onshore wind turbines in France, with aggregate capacity of 104 MW, at five wind farms being developed in the regions of Hauts de France, Grand Est, Burgundy and in Western France.

EQUINOR - The board of directors of Statoil proposes to change the name of the company to Equinor. The name change supports the company’s strategy and development as a broad energy company.

BLOOMBERG - While Europe as a whole gets more than a third of its gas from Russia, that share is lower in the U.K., which receives the bulk of its fuel from North Sea fields and Norway. Still, Moscow-based Gazprom PJSC was the second-biggest supplier to major industrial consumers in the U.K. last year, according to Britain’s energy regulator Ofgem.

FT - of the six LNG tankers that have made deliveries into the UK so far in 2018 three have carried cargoes originally from Russia, leading to questions about whether Moscow was gaining a foothold in the UK gas market after starting up the Yamal LNG facility in Siberia late last year.

REUTERS - So far this year, two Yamal cargoes unloaded at British terminals for domestic consumption, accounting for about a third of Britain’s 2018 LNG imports after typical supplier Qatar pre-sold the bulk of its winter output to Asia last year.

PLATTS - But the dispute erupted again last week after the court ruled in Naftogaz’s favor on the transit element of the case, awarding Naftogaz $4.6 billion in compensation for Gazprom’s underuse of its transit network. The net award to Naftogaz was $2.6 billion across the entire case after the court previously awarded Gazprom a little over $2 billion in the supply ruling.

OGJ - Sandra Oudkirk, deputy assistant secretary for energy diplomacy at the US Department of State’s Bureau of Energy Resources, said Nord Stream 2 matters to the US because it would cement a transportation system in place that could perpetuate dependence on Russian gas for some key US allies. “It would not increase the amount of gas coming into Europe, only replace volumes that now are being transported through Ukraine,” she said.

PLATTS - The Russia-UK poisoning row threatens to put renewed strain on the two countries' deep-seated energy ties, illustrated by some of the first ever LNG shipments from Russia's vast new Yamal LNG facility now arriving in the UK.

WNN - A consortium led by Westinghouse Electric Company has completed an EU-funded project aimed at diversifying the supply of fuel to Russian-built VVER-440 reactors in Europe.