Naphtha and fuel oil are loaded onto Clearocean Apollon Clyde Noble tankers at the nearby Ust-Luga Oil terminal.

The Sakhalin-2 LNG export plant is the closest to North Asia, home to the world’s top buyers. The facility supplied nearly 10% of Japan’s LNG needs last year, and hasn’t been targeted by Western sanctions due in part to the need to ensure energy security.

In the last few months of 2023, the US ramped up enforcement of the price cap and imposed multiple rounds of sanctions on entities and ships that carried Russian crude oil above the price cap.

The global oil demand growth forecast for 2024 remains unchanged at 2.2 mb/d, with the OECD growing by around 0.3 mb/d and the non-OECD by about 2.0 mb/d. The global oil demand growth in 2025 is expected to see a robust growth of 1.8 mb/d, y-o-y. The OECD is expected to grow by 0.1 mb/d, y-o-y, while demand in the non-OECD is forecast to increase by 1.7 mb/d.

Russia has delivered the first drop of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from its heavily sanctioned flagship project, Arctic LNG-2.

The US Treasury Department announced the steps Wednesday, including sanctions on Bellatrix Energy Ltd., a Hong Kong-based firm among the shadowy traders that emerged to help Russia keep its oil exports flowing.

Russia is eyeing the Northern Sea Route across the Arctic Ocean to supply the cargoes to the east, to cut the time and cost of bringing its fuel to market.

Russia’s Novatek PJSC, which leads the Arctic LNG 2 project, sent force majeure notices to some of the facility’s buyers,

The nation’s plants processed 5.33 million barrels of crude a day in the first six days of the month, down about 81,000 barrels a day from the prior week’s average, according to a person with knowledge of industry data.

Starting in December, Japan will begin operating "Strategic Buffer LNG," or SBL, cargoes in order to be prepared for any supply issues, starting with a minimum of one LNG cargo a month during the country's peak winter demand months over December 2023-February 2024, with JERA having been approved Nov. 24 as the first supplier.

Europe will need to invest 584 billion euros ($637 billion)to upgrade its power grids this decade, according to European Union estimates.

China, which has been promoting the yuan’s use in transactions with major energy and commodity exporters, is Saudi Arabia’s biggest trade partner.

The European Commission hopes to introduce a "requirement for attestations to also include itemized ancillary costs, such as insurance and freight," on top of a declaration on the price paid for the Russian oil.

The world oil demand growth forecast for 2023 is revised up marginally from the previous month’s assessment to 2.5 mb/d.

Addressing electric transmission capacity constraints and congestion is an existential necessity to maintain grid reliability while meeting demand.