The country with the largest mineral reserves in the world, Russia, is the second top exporter of rare earth minerals. Its natural resources are estimated at tens of trillions of dollars. It has abundant supplies of oil, natural gas, timber and valuable minerals, such as copper, diamonds, lead, zinc, bauxite, nickel, tin, mercury, gold and silver. [...]

Austria believes that the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project will be successfully implemented, Russian Ambassador in Vienna Dmitry Lyubinsky told Sputnik. "Nord Stream 2 is, of course, the most promising initiative of our energy partnership with Austria… They believe here that this project will be successfully implemented," Lyubinsky said. [...]

The world’s largest construction vessel, Pioneering Spirit, will begin laying pipes for the Nord Stream 2 project in the Finnish exclusive economic zone next week, Nord Stream 2 AG said in a statement. [...]

Earlier, Germany voiced support for the construction of the second Nord Stream pipeline amid criticism from US President Donald Trump, who has urged EU countries to abandon the project and buy American liquefied natural gas (LNG) instead. [...]

The Russian-led gas pipeline project Nord Stream 2, which is aimed at delivering Russian gas to Europe via Germany, must be completed, according to the German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Peter Altmaier. The minister says the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has nothing to do with the project. [...]

The announcement comes after President Donald Trump welcomed the German government's intention to fund the construction of a terminal to supply liquefied natural gas from the United States, despite Berlin's plans to take part in the implementation of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project. [...]

Nord Stream 2 AG, a Swiss-based firm behind the construction of Gazprom’s gas pipeline across the Baltic Sea, has laid about 250 kilometers (155 miles) of pipes, company spokesman Jens Mueller told Sputnik. [...]

Costa Rica will become the first nation in the world to completely eliminate fossil fuels. In May, the country's new president, 38-year-old former journalist Carlos Alvarado announced the plan to ban fossil fuels during his inauguration speech. [...]

Global investors report that after all the data is sorted it is now cheaper to build a new solar or wind farm than to maintain an existing coal plant. [...]

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The United States and Ukraine will cooperate on halting the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said after a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Pavlo Klimkin in Washington, DC. "We will keep working together to stop the Nord Stream 2 project that undermines Ukraine's economic and strategic security," Pompeo stated on Friday. [...]

Several cargo ships carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia’s Yamal LNG plant have arrived in the US, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova announced, highlighting the obvious weirdness of the situation. [...]

Washington has been putting external pressure on EU states over the Russian-European Nord Stream 2 project and repeatedly threatened to impose sanctions on the involved entities. The US cites security and energy independence reasons, while promoting more expensive US LNG. [...]

A number of European countries have recently signaled willingness to receive Russian natural gas through the Turkish Stream pipeline. Italy, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Hungary are seeking to boost purchases of Russian hydrocarbons. In light of this trend the future of the expected US LNG boom seems bleak. [...]

China’s LNG demand grew by a record 8 mt in 2017 and is set to expand by another record 12 mt this year, making up 50 percent of all global LNG demand growth, energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie said in a new report last week. The country’s spike in LNG usage comes as Beijing pushes forward with its plan to offset coal usage of both industrial and residential end users in an effort to curb rampa [...]

Europe should stop backing a Russia-led project to deliver natural gas to the continent, according to US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Wess Mitchell. However, not all the European nations agree. [...]

There are some early signs that the US shale industry is starting to show its age, with depletion rates on the rise. A study from Wood Mackenzie found that some wells in the Permian Wolfcamp were suffering from decline rates at or above 15 percent after five years, much higher than the 5 to 10 percent originally anticipated. “ [...]

The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Europe will double Russian natural gas supplies to Germany via the Baltic Sea and reduce transit across Ukraine. On August 10, the operator of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline construction project was forced to apply for an alternative pipeline route in Denmark, Sputnik contributor Dmitry Lekukh wrote. [...]

Although the Chinese government has not yet gone so far in the ever-escalating trade war as to sanction United States oil, imports are drying up anyway as Chinese buyers shy away from US crude. According to US Census Bureau data released last week, for the first time since 2016, China has halted purchases of US crude, importing zero barrels in August. [...]

The minister-president of the state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania in northern Germany has lambasted critics of the gas pipeline project, who didn’t play with “open cards,” and rejected claims that the venture would make her country fully dependent of Russia as “nonsense.” [...]

The crude rally is likely to continue this year as OPEC countries are losing their exports, analysts told RT. The key reason is US sanctions against major producers Iran and Venezuela. [...]

The Trump administration has shot itself in the foot by tightening the screws in the US-China tariff war: Beijing is turning its back on American liquefied natural gas (LNG) in response to Washington's third round of tariffs. The move is especially painful for the US, as it had projected to jump on the bandwagon of the booming Asian gas market. [...]

Sanctions against Russia’s key energy companies would inevitably lead to a collapse of the European energy sector, BP CEO Bob Dudley has warned, according to Sputnik news agency. “I do not think that would happen. If sanctions were put on Rosneft or Gazprom or LUKoil like what happened with Rusal, you would virtually shut down the energy systems of Europe, it is a bit of extreme thing to happe [...]