French bank Societe Generale recommended selling British natural gas for summer delivery, citing expectations that additional Russian supplies will flood the European market this year.

• February 14, 2012

A US envoy will hold talks with North Korea on its nuclear program in Beijing next week, the first such negotiations since the death of the nation's longtime leader, Kim Jong II.

• February 13, 2012

A defiant Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed Saturday to inaugurate "important nuclear projects" within days and lashed out at Israel, saying the "story" of the Holocaust underpinning its existence had been "smashed".

• February 11, 2012

Afflicted by an unusually cold spell, and with diplomatic tensions in its neighbourhood adding pressure on energy supplies, the European Commission is backing future gas deliveries from Azerbaijan, irrespective of the pipeline used, Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger told dpa in an interview conducted in Brussels this week.

• February 10, 2012

"We are ready, upon official request from Russia, to grant extra gas to Europe," said Ukraine's Energy Minister Yuriy Boyko. In his interview to CNN, the Ukrainian minister explained that currently Ukraine receives 400 million cubic meters of gas per day on its eastern border instead of the required 500 million due to extremely cold weather in Russia. This caused a drop in the amount of gas Europe received through Ukrainian pipeline.

• February 10, 2012

Azerbaijan restarted natural gas deliveries on Thursday to Turkey from its giant Shah Deniz field, a spokeswoman for operator BP told Reuters.

• February 9, 2012

Within the framework of the IMEMO’s Oil and Gas Dialog Forum BP's chief economist Christof Rühl presented BP Energy Outlook 2030 to the audience of the Russian academics It was stressed that the outlook’s ‘base case’ reflects a ‘to the best of our knowledge’ assessment of the world’s likely path from today’s vantage point, drawing on expertise both within and outside the company. The outlook highlights the growing role of developing economies in global energy consumption, and the increasing share of non-fossil fuels in global energy supply. It emphasizes the central role markets and well-designed policy can play to meet the dual challenge of solving the energy needs of billions of people who aspire to better lifestyles, and doing so in a way that is sustainable and secure. It also notes the uncertainties attached to any long term projection. The discipline of building a numerical projection sharpens our thinking, but the precise numbers are less important than the underlying story of the challenges we all face and the choices we make in producing and consuming energy. To read the report please click EGF or BP

• February 8, 2012

Turkmenistan has reduced its gas exports to Iran due to very cold weather in Central Asia but there have been no supply problems yet, the head of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) said. In a statement posted on the NIGC website on Monday, NIGC Managing Director Javad Owji said no Iranian city had so far experienced any disruption in gas supply because of the reduction in Turkmen gas exports. He did not quantify the cut. Iran exports gas to Turkey when it can but relies on Turkmenistan to supply the extra gas it needs during cold winter months for heating.

• February 6, 2012