Crude imports rose 55% from a year ago to 8.42 million tons, with Russia overtaking Saudi Arabia as China’s main source of oil, according to customs data released on Monday.

Supply is likely to remain curbed with Gazprom PJSC’s chief Alexey Miller warning there’s no solution for now for issues with the gas turbines essential for the functioning of the pipeline.

Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman met Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak on Thursday at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, a flagship conference that almost all Western officials and business executives are avoiding this year following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In the worst-case scenario where the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany is shut totally, Europe will fail to reach storage levels the European Union has ordered by the start of the heating season in November. And the region could run out of stocks completely by January.

Eni SpA will receive just half of its requested gas volumes from Russia’s Gazprom PJSC on Friday, compared with about two-thirds the previous day.

The surge in electricity supply did little to ease rising prices that are being driven higher by climbing gas costs as Russia cuts some flows to Europe.

"We see that we have a fairly significant increase in June compared to May, up around 600,000 b/d," Novak said on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum,

Compared to pre-war levels in January and February, Russia's shipped crude exports from June 1-15 rose by 576,000 b/d to average about 3.88 million b/d,

Germany advised people to defrost their freezers regularly, change shower heads and switch office lighting to LEDs as the government tries to reduce a reliance on imported Russian energy that’s become a political liability.

"This problem can be solved -- insuring supplies can be secured by using state guarantees within the framework of interstate agreements with third countries," Medvedev said.

"The EU's decisions to partially phase out Russian oil and oil products, as well as to ban the insurance of Russian merchant ships, are highly likely to provoke further price increases, destabilize energy markets, and disrupt supply chains," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Another group of officials, many based at Janet Yellen’s Treasury Department, worry about further strains on a global economy already suffering from supply-chain woes, inflation, volatile oil prices and a potential food crisis.

Meanwhile those with spare capacity – primarily Saudi Arabia and the UAE – have held off on breaching their quotas to maintain OPEC+ unity rather than spark a market share battle.

Gas exports to the countries beyond the FSU amounted to 61 billion cubic meters, which is 27.6 per cent (or 23.2 billion cubic meters) lower than the figure for the same period of 2021.

Gazprom completely suspends gas supplies to Shell Energy Europe Limited due to failure to pay in rubles