Russia’s natural gas exports by pipeline to the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK) declined by almost 40% during the first seven months of 2022 compared with the same period in 2021 and by almost 50% compared with the previous five-year (2017–21) average,

Benchmark German power for next year rose as much as 4.5% to a record 446 euros a megawatt-hour on the European Energy Exchange.

With nearly half of German homes relying on gas for heating, the country faces potential rationing if it fails to secure sufficient reserves.

Russian oil production in July was only 310,000 b/d below prewar levels, a fall of less than 3 per cent, while total oil exports were down about 580,000 b/d, according to the IEA’s latest monthly oil report.

Under the government’s latest “reasonable worst-case scenario,” Britain could face an electricity capacity shortfall totaling about a sixth of peak demand, even after emergency coal plants have been fired up, according to people familiar with the government’s planning.

Benchmark gas declined as much as 2.9%, sliding for a third session. The continent’s storage sites are 72% full, compared to the average for the previous five years of 70.1%, data from Gas Infrastructure Europe show.

Much of the world isn’t ready to follow US and European efforts to isolate President Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Hard-coal output averaged 6.36 GW for Week 31 (Aug. 1-8), up 21% week-on-week, while gas fell 24% to 4.26 GW.

The 25th batch of Russian electrical equipment was successfully delivered to the construction site of the international thermonuclear experimental reactor Iter in France,

While the U.S. and European Union have already moved to ban imports of Russian oil into their ports, officials are now scrambling to curb Russia’s revenue from its oil sales globally and also avoid soaring energy prices during a time of high inflation.

Energy consumer prices are rising at an annual rate of nearly 40 per cent in the eurozone and 57 per cent in the UK, reflecting the surge in wholesale gas and oil prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That is drastically eating into households’ disposable income.

The incentive to reduce gas consumption is huge after Putin reduced supplies to Germany via the Nord Steam 1 pipeline. The Dutch TTF gas contract, a European benchmark, is trading above 205 euros ($209) per megawatt hour, 10 times its average in the decade through 2020 and equivalent to about $350 per barrel of oil.

TotalEnergies said it would boost spending on short-cycle projects this year to help ease Europe's growing energy supply crunch. It expects its full-year capital spending to hit $16 billion in 2022 as it hopes to increase its sources of European natural gas and produce more LNG in the coming months.

The region imported almost 700,000 barrels a day of the fuel from Russia last month, higher than the previous month and a 22 per cent increase compared with July last year

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.