As Prime Minister Boris Johnson gears up for a snap election, his government made a surprise U-turn on shale gas extraction, citing public concerns and technological limits on predicting the impact of fracking on the environment.

The US Congress has moved forward with legislation to impose sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project in defiance of criticism from Washington’s allies in Europe, as the joint venture brings together Russia’s Gazprom, Germany’s Uniper and Wintershall, Austria’s OMV, France’s Engie, and Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell.

Washington has repeatedly threatened to impose sanctions on all parties related to or working on Nord Stream 2, with President Donald Trump accusing Germany of being a “captive” of Russia and urging Berlin to halt its cooperation on the $11-billion project.

The German Ambassador to the United States has asked the US Congress to hold back new sanctions against two of Russia’s biggest gas corporations, as further penalties may put energy security of the European Union in jeopardy.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The US government is ending sanctions waivers for Iranian oil importers to provoke a violent insurrection or establish a casus belli for an external invasion, former UK Ambassador Peter Ford told Sputnik.

As US crude exports soar, an unexpected issue is plaguing domestic producers, and it could completely derail the country’s oil boom. Two South Korean refiners have canceled the delivery of US crude oil cargoes that were due to arrive in January and February this year, Bloomberg reported earlier this week.

Earlier this week, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling for the stopping of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which the document claimed boosts the EU’s dependence on Russian gas supplies and threatens the bloc’s energy security.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has sought to recruit some of the top oil industry guns to serve as Washington’s foreign policy tools to crack down on “bad actors” like Venezuela, Russia and Iran.

Europe will pay half as much for liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia than what US energy companies offer, according to independent Russian gas producer Novatek.

The United States is acting as “a market without a brain” as it responds to prices and increases its oil output to record highs, Bob Dudley, the chief executive officer of the UK multinational BP Group, said Tuesday.

The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, implemented by Russian energy corporation Gazprom, serves the interests of Germany, according to Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Soder, as quoted by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Austria will continue buying Russian gas despite US pressure and fear-mongering from Poland and Ukraine about dangers to European energy security. The cost of importing US gas is just not right, says its Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.

India appears to be defying every foreign policy goal relentlessly pursued by the US, stubbornly striking deals with nations Washington is trying to isolate from global trade. Russia, Iran and now Venezuela – all among the top targets of Washington’s aggressive rhetoric and sanctions – are also among the nations India has been refusing to […]

Purchases of Venezuelan crude by US energy companies saw a five-fold weekly growth as of the middle of February, nearly reaching their pre-sanctions level, the latest data published by the International Energy Agency (IEA) shows.

As the US tries to impede Berlin from a joint energy project with Russia – Nord Stream 2 – the German economy minister says that his country will stick to the enterprise, backing Moscow as a reliable partner.