"This agreement extends Qatar's long standing LNG supply relationship with Kuwait well into the 2030's and highlights our commitment to meeting Kuwait's LNG requirements," Saad al-Kaabi, minister of state for energy affairs and the CEO of Qatar Petroleum, said in a statement

The project, expected to start up in 2024, will increase Nigeria's LNG output capacity by 35% from current levels of 22.5 million mt per year to over 30 million mt per year, NLNG said.

“Of course we will finish building (the pipeline)... Gazprom has alternative options for how to lay it. It will take a little more time, but that’s no big deal,” Medvedev told journalists, adding that it could take a couple more months.

Gazprom is showing that the strategy chosen for 2020 -- and potentially over the longer term -- is to defend its market share in Europe by flooding the Continent with cheap gas, send alternative sources of supply, in particular LNG, out of the money, traders told

Spending an estimated Eur66 billion on the three projects, Gazprom clearly saw money as being no object to achieving its goals -- be they economic, geopolitical or both.

It was highlighted that the ongoing global growth in natural gas consumption is one of the chief trends of 2019.

This was supposed to be a breakout year for US LNG export projects getting commercially sanctioned. But with 2019 wrapping up, just two new export terminals and an additional train at an existing facility made it over the line to construction.

Ukraine is a key transit route for Russian piped gas exports to Europe and the existing deal between the two post-Soviet countries expires at the end of 2019.

"The organizing company [Naftogaz] will reserve transport capacities for five years in the amount of 225 Bcm, including 65 Bcm for 2020, 40 Bcm for 2021 and subsequent years, subject to the establishment of a competitive tariff," Miller told reporters.

“Such sanctions are a serious interference in the internal affairs of Germany and Europe and their sovereignty. We firmly reject this,” Scholz told German broadcaster ARD in comments released on Saturday. But he rejected countermeasures.

Switzerland’s AllSeas Group SA removed vessels that were laying the last section of the pipeline connecting Russia with Germany, which was just weeks away from completion, after U.S. President Donald Trump approved sanctions targeting the project.

In anticipation of the enactment of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), Allseas has suspended its Nord Stream 2 pipelay activities. Allseas will proceed, consistent with the legislation’s wind down provision and expect guidance comprising of the necessary regulatory, technical and environmental clarifications from the relevant US authority.

After hours of talks brokered by the European Commission in Berlin, Sefcovic said: "I am very glad to say we have reached agreement in principle on all key elements, which is very positive news for Europe, for Russia, for Ukraine and for the gas market."

The U.S. has little leverage to prevent the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project between Russia and Germany from being completed, two administration officials said, acknowledging the failure of a years-long effort to head off what officials believe is a threat to European security.

Europe’s imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) have been steadily increasing since October 2018, and reached a new monthly record of 12.7 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in November 2019