Engie and Gazprom have agreed on a solution in line with both companies' expectations in terms of currencies and with European sanctions.

Due to the ongoing geopolitical crisis, the EU member states have set up a purchasing platform for gas, LNG and hydrogen. In this way, one wants to become more independent of Russian energy imports and react against the strong price fluctuations of natural gas.

The energy package due this week may include measures to address the increasing household costs and energy poverty.

European gas prices were trading higher early May 12, with the TTF month-ahead price up at Eur105/MWh ($109.72/MWh) as of 0815 GMT, according to ICE data.

Germany, Russia's top client in Europe, said some subsidiaries of Gazprom Germania were receiving no gas because of the sanctions.

The monthly import profile for April, which following European wholesale front-month trade in March, saw sourcing from all parts of the world intensify, with Europe comfortably receiving its highest-ever volume for a single month. This was, however, paid for at a high price.

Global LNG import volumes reached 372.3 million tons, a rise of 16.2 million tons from 2020,

Moscow has imposed sanctions on the owner of the Polish part of the Yamal pipeline that carries Russian gas to Europe, as well as Gazprom's former German unit, whose subsidiaries help meet Europe's gas consumption.

Requests via the Velke Kapusany border point in Slovakia were around 512,056 megawatt hours (MWh) per day, down from 856,922 MWh per day earlier on Thursday, data from Slovakian operator TSO Eustream showed.

"We will cooperate to reduce Europe's dependency on energy supplies from Russia and to ensure diversification of energy supply sources, and acknowledge the need for investments to achieve this."

The Brent price will average $107/b in 2Q22 and $103/b in the second half of 2022, the average price to fall to $97/b in 2023.

Russia supplied about 40% of the European Union’s gas demand last year, and about a third of that transited Ukraine, making it a linchpin in the continent’s energy security.

I believe we are in fact in the first global energy crisis, and this is affecting the oil markets, gas markets, electricity markets and coal markets. The world has never seen such an energy crisis.

"Due to the fact that the Nord Stream 2 offshore gas pipeline is currently not in use, and taking into account the implementation of gas supply for consumers in northwest Russia, Gazprom has decided to use the excess onshore gas transmission capacity of Nord Stream 2 for the development of gas supply to the regions of northwest Russia," Gazprom said in a statement.

China’s LNG imports averaged 10.5 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d), a 19% increase compared with 2020.