Ukraine attacked the Saratov crude-oil refinery in Russia’s Volga region overnight as Western nations seek to push President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table.
“Betting markets aren’t overly convinced that we’ll see a ceasefire before the end of the year,” ING commodity analysts said in a note following the meeting. Indeed, the surrender of the Donbass, most of which is already under Russian control, remains a no-no for Zelensky, it appears, while it also remains a hard condition for Russia. This mars the prospect of peace quite considerably unless both sides are willing to make concessions.
Mol wants the EU and other affected nations to take part in “revitalizing” the Odesa pipeline, which the company says would also provide an alternative to Russian oil for Serbia. Hungary and Serbia are currently building a pipeline connection.
Germany’s year-ahead power futures prices fell this week to the lowest level since the beginning of the year amid falling European natural gas prices as talks on a peace deal in Ukraine began.
Russia claimed it damaged ground infrastructure of one of the largest natural gas storage sites in Ukraine’s Lviv region during a series of attacks on the country’s energy sector on Wednesday.
Even as Russian troops and tanks moved into Ukraine in February 2022, Russian natural gas kept flowing through the country’s pipeline network — set up when Ukraine and Russia were both part of the Soviet Union — to Europe, under a five-year agreement.
Ukraine has identified 238 tankers it said belong to a shadow fleet of ships that Russia is using to keep its oil and fuels moving around the world, with hopes this information (which the west has had for years) will force western authorities to sanction the carriers.
Russia halted gas supplies to Austria’s OMV (OMVV.VI), opens new tab in mid-November amid a contractual dispute and legal wranglings related to interrupted gas supplies in 2022.
Despite the stoppage, overall Russian gas exports via Ukraine, which account for just under half of Moscow’s total gas flows to the continent, have remained stable as other buyers stepped in.
Russia halted supply to Vienna-based energy company OMV over contractual dispute in mid-November, but overall gas exports to Austria have remained stable as other companies have stepped up their purchases.
The current five-year gas transit deal between Russia and Ukraine expires on Dec. 31 and Kyiv has repeatedly said it would not engage in talks with Moscow over an agreement extension.