Brent crude oil spot prices averaged $59 per barrel (b) in August, down $5/b from July and $13/b lower than the average from August of last year. EIA forecasts Brent spot prices will average $60/b in the fourth quarter of 2019 and $62/b in 2020. EIA forecasts that West Texas Intermediate (WTI) prices will average $5.50/b less than Brent prices in 2020.

Вопрос транзитного договора является чрезвычайно важным, но все-таки первоочередной вопрос — будет ли Украина покупать российский газ по прямому контракту. The question of the transit contract is essential, and yet the top-priority question is whether Ukraine will buy Russian gas under a direct contract.

Over January-August, China imported a total of 63.04 million mt, or 86.93 Bcm of natural gas, up 10.3% from 57.15 million mt, or 78.81 Bcm, during the same period last year, according to the customs data.

GAZPROM, KOGAS expressed interest in further expanding their cooperation in the area of LNG and continuing their sci-tech collaboration.

GAZPROM, MITSUI discussed issues related to their cooperation, expressing appreciation for the Sakhalin II project, which turned 25 years old this year.

Saudi Aramco, the world’s most profitable company, is trying to break into the fledgling market for liquefied natural gas trading. To do so, the state-owned company is tapping its decades-old network of oil-trading contacts, selling its first two cargoes to longstanding crude customers in South Korea and India.

Arctic LNG-2 is expected to launch in 2023 and will aim to export 80 percent of its LNG to Asia, Novatek Chief Executive Leonid Mikhelson, Russia’s richest businessman according to Forbes magazine, said after the project’s partners signed a final investment decision (FID) at an economic forum.

Russia's exports of medium sweet ESPO Blend crude oil are expected to total 3.12 million mt in October, up 30% from September, according to the latest monthly loading program.

"Western sanctions have helped deepen Russia-China energy links as Chinese entities have emerged as a source of capital, which in turn has facilitated Chinese financing of the Yamal LNG project as well as the conclusion of the Power of Siberia pipeline," Dr Michal Meidan, director of the China Energy Program at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, said.

India and Russia are targeting $30 billion of annual trade by 2025, India’s foreign secretary said on Wednesday as a string of energy deals deepened economic ties between the nations.

Russia's Novatek signed two memoranda of understanding with Indian companies H-Energy Global and Petronet LNG Wednesday on cooperation on LNG supplies and production, on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.

U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG now amount to 10% of the global market and at 22 million tonnes so far this year are equal to the total volumes pumped out in 2018,

The MOU envisages cooperation in LNG supplies to India on a long-term basis, joint investment in future LNG terminals of H-Energy and LNG projects of NOVATEK, as well as establishing a joint venture to market LNG and natural gas from NOVATEK’s portfolio to end-customers in India, Bangladesh and other markets.

India's Petronet LNG is eyeing stakes in gas projects in the US and other countries in an effort to strengthen its grip on the supply sources as it expects India's import demand to grow sharply

Turkey's liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports reached a record high at 7.14 billion cubic meters in the first half of 2019, according to Turkey's Energy Market Regulatory Authority's (EMRA) data.