Mark Iden

Record-breaking gas prices and market volatility are the new norm.  Russian gas is increasingly being shunned and the EU has declared that it envisions a future without the Kremlin's primary bread-winner:  natural gas.

Indigenous Australians are filing a lawsuit to stop Santos, Ltd., an Australian oil and gas exploration and production company, from developing the $3.6 billion Barossa gas project off the coast of northern Australia.  The traditional landowners said they were not consulted about the drilling activities.

Nigerian state oil firm Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has received a green light from the Nigerian government to go forward with the signing of a memorandum of understanding on the construction of a 5660-km gas pipeline via Morocco to Europe.

The first five months of this year witnessed Gazprom delivering substantially less gas to foreign destinations than in the previous year.  27.6 percent or 23.2 billion cubic meters of gas, to be precise.

At the same time, Gazprom transported more gas than previously to China through the Power of Siberia pipeline.  The concern did not mention any numbers.

"This is totally not acceptable," Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said. “This is a kind of blackmailing from Putin. We continue to support Ukraine, and we distance ourselves from the crimes that Putin and Russia commit.”

Ukraine has begun to leverage its considerable moral capital by taking aim at the remaining sources of revenue for Russian President Vladimir Putin's military transgressions against its erstwhile ally.  The current target of Ukrainian wrath is none other than Nord Stream 1, the remaining jewel of Russian pipeline infrastructure.

Against a backdrop of chronic sabotage and theft of energy resources and hardware, TotalEnergies has launched a sale of its 10 percent stake in Nigerian joint venture Shell Petroleum Corporation (SPDC).  In addition to assets such as 3500-km of gas pipelines connecting two key crude export terminals, the sale includes its interest in 13 onshore fields and three in shallow waters, producing

Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine continues to roil gas pipeline operations throughout Europe.  Late last week, Finland's state-owned energy group Gasum was informed by  Russia's Gazprom Export that natural gas supplies from Russia to Finland would be cut on Saturday at 04.00 GMT.

Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU) will not reopen the Sokhranovka gas transit route from Russia to Europe until Kyiv obtains full control over its pipeline system, the head of GTSOU told Reuters on Thursday.

Snam, a leading energy infrastructure company based in Milan, Italy and Enagas, Spain's energy provider, have teamed up to assess the viability of constructing an offshore gas pipeline between the two countries.