Energy

Gas prices increased on Tuesday (16 November) to the highest level in three weeks in the European Union. This is due to Germany's temporary shutdown of the certification process for the new gas pipeline Nord Stream 2. In addition, there is an outage at a major gas field in Norway, which is expected to last until Friday.

EU High Representative Josep Borrell said in Brussels on Thursday (28 October) that in Moldova, the EU sees attempts by Gazprom to put political pressure in return to lower the gas prices. He said he had agreed with the Moldovan Prime Minister on the importance of strengthening resilience against any potential efforts by third parties to use energy as a geopolitical weapon. "Gas is a commodity. It has been bought and sold, sold and bought but it cannot be used as a geopolitical weapon", Borrell stated.

The entrance of Iran in the 2015 nuclear deal and the lifting of US sanctions led to a boom in Iran's energy sector. A similar boom is expected after a new deal is successfully agreed upon. Experts suggest that the Iranian return to a deal could entail both negative and positive scenarios for its energy economy. 

A high-level delegation led by the Libyan prime minister, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, visited Turkey on Monday (12 April) to participate in the joint high-level Strategic Cooperation Council. The two sides signed several new Memoranda of Understanding and renewed a commitment to the 2019 maritime boundaries agreement between the two countries. 

Saudi air defense crews also intercepted eight mined drones launched by the rebel Houthi movement from Yemen.

Gazprom intends to build an LNG plant with an annual capacity of 1.5 mln tonnes near the Far Eastern city of Vladivostok, and another facility on the Black Sea coast, which will have a production capacity ranging between 500,000 and 1.5 mln tonnes. Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East are top priority regions for Gazprom in the long term.