The boom in STS activity involving Russian crude came as Moscow's seaborne oil exports defied Western sanctions to hit post-pandemic highs of 4 million b/d in April 2022.

Russia has cut exports to Europe to multiyear lows this summer -- supplying less than a third of normal volumes -- and there’s no clarity on further moves.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) announced an additional Notice of Sale of up to 20 million additional barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 4.5 million barrels to 422.1 million barrels.

Gas prices jumped more than 10% following Gazprom’s decision to reduce Nord Stream flows even further. Moscow has been curbing shipments to the EU for months over apparent retaliation for the bloc’s support for Ukraine and sanctions over Russia’s invasion.

Natural gas flows from Russia to Germany via the Nord Stream pipeline will fall to 33 million cu m/d at 0700 Moscow time (0500 BST) due to the cessation of operations on another Siemens gas turbine at Portovaya

Most U.S. LNG exports went to the EU and the UK during the first five months of this year, accounting for 71%, or 8.2 Bcf/d, of the total U.S. LNG exports

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 0.4 million barrels to 426.6 million barrels.

“The resumption this morning of flows along Nord Stream is likely to lead to a collective sign of relief from not just the European gas market, but from the wider economy,”

Steady inflows have lengthened waiting times for Very Large Gas Carriers to discharge at India's terminals,

“Until now I thought we had shot ourselves in the foot,” Orban said. “Now it’s more like the European economy had shot itself in the lungs and it’s now struggling to breathe.”

As a result, China's crude throughput in June rose a further 1.9% month on month to 54.94 million mt in May, when the volume had rebounded 4.1% from a 35-month low of 51.81 million mt in April,

«Наша задача, и это является одним из направлений государственной политики в электроэнергетике, обеспечивать надёжность функционирования, достаточность инвестиций, направляемых в развитие электросетевого комплекса, и технологическую независимость», - сказал замглавы Минэнерго России.

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories increased by 3.3 million barrels to 427.1 million barrels.

"What is definitely problematic is to include energy into the sanctions, because a rule must be observed that the sanctions must have a greater impact on Russia than on the countries imposing the sanctions."