Politics & Regulation

The USA has begun to devise plans to supply Europe with natural gas in the event of a Russian invasion of the Ukraine.

The Taliban government, on Monday, January 10, announced their plan to deploy a contingent of the Islamist fighters from a special unit to continue working on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) project, which was suspended last year due to uncertainty and insecurity following the imminent attack collapse of Kabul.

Argentina's President, Alberto Fernandez, will in the next few days sign a decree to push for the construction of the country's major gas pipeline in the Vaca Muerta shale formation to boost exports, an anonymous source told Reuters on Dec.21, 2021.

In the wake of massive nationwide protests against sharp liquified natural gas (LNG) price rises which approximately doubled the cost of the fuel overnight, the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, a group which runs Kazakhstan's main crude oil blend to export terminals, said on Thursday it was continuing to operate normally amid the state of emergency in the central Asian country.

The European Commission has developed a controversial plan to call certain natural gas and nuclear energy projects as "green" investments.   Companies must meet economic and environmental criteria listed in the EU's sustainable finance taxonomy in order to qualify.

The U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials and Safety Administration (PHMSA) has issued new rules for the operation of pipelines in "unusually sensitive areas."  Such areas include the Great Lakes region, marine coastal waters and beaches.

As Russian saber-rattling on the eastern front of the Ukraine continues unabated, so too does the West's preoccupation with Nord Stream 2, with threats to prevent any gas from flowing through the pipeline reverberating from diverse sides of the Nato alliance.

The Trans Mountain Pipeline restarted "safely" on Sunday 5, 2021, according to the company's officials, after a three-week precautionary shutdown. But the B.C government maintained the fuel-rationing order for the province's southwestern areas.

Iran has signed a tripartite gas supply swap deal with its neighboring states Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, to facilitate gas flow between the two countries.  The agreement is expected to be operational at the beginning of winter, according to the Iranian oil minister, Javad Owji.

Behind the scenes Germany is patiently working with the United States to implement a deal allowing for the ultimate transportation of natural gas from Russia to Germany via the Nord Stream 2 subsea pipeline.

Uganda anticipates a new law governing the construction and operation of a 1,445-km crude export pipeline running from Lake Albert development, paving the way for the first oil ever from the project by 2025.

Russia’s Transneft pipeline, a monopolistic energy supply company, reported on Thuesday (Nov. 18) that repair work on a section of the Druzhba oil pipeline was completed, and oil pumping was set to resume in the evening of the same day as reported by the RIA news agency.

In a sobering official announcement with profound implications for the eventual operation of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, the Bundnesnetzagentur (Federal Network Agency), the overseer of pipeline operations in Germany, has temporarily suspended the present certification process for the pipeline on the basis of formal legal reasons.

Alexander Lukashenko, once dubbed by former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice as the last dictator of Europe, suffered a humiliating loss of face today when Russian gas flows to Germany rose, contrary to his threat days earlier that such flows to Europe would be cut off as winter approaches.

Kazakhstan authorities on Thursday, November 11, announced they had completed disbanding of natural gas operator Kaztransgaz from KazMunayGaz, a state-owned gas and oil company, after months of regulatory delays and endless wrangles.