REUTERS - The lawsuit filed with the ICJ says the U.S. sanctions, which are damaging the already weak Iranian economy, violate terms of a little-known friendship treaty between the two countries.

UNIAN - Ukraine must raise gas prices to market levels in order to qualify for more aid under a $17.5 billion IMF program. Ukraine, which wants to resume cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), may need to increase household gas prices, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman was quoted as saying on Thursday.

STATISTICS NORWAY - Total investments in oil and gas activity in 2019, including pipeline transportation, are estimated at NOK 165.1 billion, which is 6.2 per cent higher than estimated in the previous quarter. The estimate for 2018 is NOK 156 billion, which equals the estimate given in the previous quarter.

PLATTS - Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz 2 natural gas field producers have booked around 8.6 Bcm/year of long-term capacity to Italy in the planned 10 Bcm/year Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, developer TAP's head of communication, Lisa Givert, told

PLATTS - South Korean LPG providers' sales to the domestic market in the first six month rose 4.2% on the year despite higher retail prices, driven by solid demand for petrochemical production, company officials said Thursday.

REUTERS - China’s Sinopec Corp has teamed with Zhejiang Energy Group Co Ltd on a 3 million tonne-per-year liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in east China, with the first phase set for operation at end-2021, the state oil giant said

FT - The German official welcomed an agreement reached earlier this month between the Caspian littoral states — Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan — on a legal framework for sharing the Caspian, the world’s largest inland body of water.

PLATTS - EGAT, Thailand's largest power producer, will import the gas at PTT's Map Ta Phut LNG receiving terminal where the utility has acquired access to 1.5 million mt/year of regasification capacity from PTT LNG for a 38-year period from 2019-2056.

PLATTS - Japan's Mitsubishi has agreed to acquire a 25% interest in Bangladesh's Summit LNG import project, which includes a floating, storage and regasification unit, with the remaining 75% held by Summit Corporation, the Japanese LNG trader said in a statement late last week.

PLATTS - China Gas Holdings is expected to import around 10 million mt/year of LPG over the next five years, up from the current 2.8 million mt/year, as the Hong Kong-listed gas operator and service provider seeks to expand into the petrochemical sector, industry sources said recently.

REUTERS - Japanese utilities and industrial companies are snapping up U.S. cargoes of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) that are seeking a new home after Chinese buyers started to shun them amid an escalating trade war between Washington and Beijing.

PLATTS - South Korea's crude oil imports from Iran halved in July from a year earlier in the wake of the reimposition of US sanctions, according to preliminary data released by the Korea Customs Service Thursday.

REUTERS - Chinese oil importers are shying away from buying U.S. crude as they fear Beijing’s decision to exclude the commodity from its tariff list in a trade dispute between the world’s biggest economies may only be temporary.

PLATTS - A deal between Chinese companies and Alaska's state gas corporation to build the $43 billion Alaska LNG Project appears to be on scheduled despite the trade war brewing between the US and China.

PLATTS - Russian state-owned gas producer and transporter Gazprom filed a complaint with the WTO about the legislation in April 2014, arguing Russian infrastructure was being treated unfairly. Since then, constraints on access to OPAL have been lifted, resulting in flows via Nord Stream increasing to full capacity of 155 million cu m/day. The decision is therefore not expected to be market moving.