In September, Westinghouse and Enusa announced their intention to collaborate on VVER-440 fuel fabrication with the aim of delivering a Western alternative to Russian fuel in the European market VVER-440s currently use fuel from Rosatom’s TVEL.

Out of the total, €9bn will go to gas infrastructure, including €6.3bn in gas transportation (including the upgrade of the 430 km Adriatic Line onshore pipeline), €1.4bn in LNG infrastructure (purchase of of two new FSRU-based LNG terminals and development of related infrastructure), and €1.3bn in the expansion of gas storage capacity.

Preliminary production figures for December 2022 show an average daily production of 1 983 000 barrels of oil, NGL and condensate.

Dutch front-month futures, Europe’s gas benchmark, were 2.8% lower at €59 a megawatt-hour by 8:29 a.m. in Amsterdam.

As a result, Russian diesel makes up 27% of Europe's total 1.69 million b/d of imports in the period, the data showed.

The region’s storage sites are around 81% full, some 20 percentage points above the five-year average. That’s providing confidence that Europe will end the winter with inventories over 50% and “more than enough gas to completely replenish its storage by the start of next winter,”

Gas prices may have dropped, but are still almost double their five-year average for the time of year.

Despite the adoption of the Versailles Declaration in March 2022, when leaders of the 27 EU member states pledged to phase out the EU’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels as soon as possible, imports of Russian LNG increased by 12% in 2022 compared to 2021.

According to the EU-US announcement, EU commission aims to increase annual demand for American LNG by 50BCM by the end of 2030 and procure 15BCM more in 2022,

"Investment in new nuclear is a no-regrets option given expected increase in power demand and retirement of existing plants," the report said.

LNG deliveries to Europe have helped ease an energy crisis this winter after Russian piped supply slumped.

Norway has pledged to do as much as it can to boost gas deliveries to Europe to help counter record high gas prices triggered by the war in Ukraine and much lower Russian supplies.

However, in March last year the Belgian government decided to start talks with Electrabel - the Belgian subsidiary of Engie - with a view to extending the operation of Doel 4 and Tihange 3, allowing for the retention of 2 GWe of nuclear generation capacity.

Dutch front-month futures, the European benchmark, rose 4.3% to €72.50 a megawatt-hour at 8:55 a.m. in Amsterdam. The UK equivalent contract was 7.1% higher.

Germany exported around 501 TWh of natural gas in 2022 (749 TWh in 2021). As a result, at 948 TWh, more natural gas was available in Germany in 2022 than in 2021 (902 TWh).