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Turkey in November 2015. Progress on the deal came to a halt until relations were restored during the summer last year. The four-strand pipeline is to carry a total of 63bn cubic metres (cm) of Russian gas per year to Turkey. Turkey will consume 14bn cm of that amount, with the rest to be delivered to Europe via a link running through Greece.
Oil producers have barely cut production but prices for crude are up 20%. In November, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other producers, notably Russia, agreed to the first production cuts in eight years. Nations have since complied with their commitments or even reduced output more than expected. Yet the changes are small in absolute terms, as January numbers released by the International Energy Agency and OPEC show: The price of Brent crude has jumped more than 20 percent since late September while precious little has changed on the supply side. In January, the global oil supply fell by 1.5 million barrels a day according to the IEA and by 1.29 million barrels a day according to OPEC. That's a reduction of a little more than 1 percent. The OPEC forecast for the first quarter of this year shows that at the cartel's January production level was 32.13 million barrels a day -- still higher than demand. Demand in the first quarter of 2017 is expected to be 94.84mbd vs 95.89mbd of supply. The developed world's commercial oil stocks dropped in January, but they still stand at around 299 million barrels above the five-year average. Russia ratcheted up production by about 4 percent between August and November 2016, then promised to phase in cuts of about 300,000 barrels a day and, according to OPEC data, cut about 30,000 barrels a day in January. Russia is now pumping more oil than in August, and the price is higher now, thanks in large part to nonexistent but loudly announced "unprecedented" Russian cuts in sync with OPEC.
The board of directors of Russian natural gas producer Gazprom has approved the purchase of €1.425bn of additional shares in the operator of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline project, t he company said on February 13, TASS reported. Earlier Gazprom announced a plan to include Nord Stream in its 2017 investment programme and inject RUB110.7bn (€1.79bn) in the project. On February 3, Gazprom approved the acquisition of 50% of shares in Nord Stream 2 AG, which enabled it to record 100% of the company as treasury stock.
89 RUSSIA Country Report February 2017 www.intellinews.com