US President Joe Biden slammed the long disputed Keystone XL oil pipeline in his first day in office. The project was intended to link US and Canada. With one of his first orders Biden revoked the pipeline’s permit, Reuters reported.

US president-elect Joe Biden vowed to revoke the permit for Keystone XL pipeline multi-billion project, AP reported. The project was one of the pearls in the crown of the outgoing president Donald Trump.

The US State Department addressed European companies and reaffirmed threat to impose sanctions targeted at everyone involved in the construction Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, Reuters reported.

The surge of Covid-19 in Europe provoked new lockdowns and thus limited the travel options. The latter pressed down the expected recovery of the fuel market. Most of Europe is now under strictest restrictions, according to the Oxford stringency index quoted by Reuters, which assesses indicators such as school and workplace closures, and travel bans. In November only four European countries had imposed similar lockdowns.

Saudi Arabia has officially declared plans to reduce pumping of crude oil by some one million barrels per day to support the level of international prices, AP reported. Thus Saudi companies will take extra burden amid on-going plans to boost OPEC output by 500,000.

Azerbaijan started commercial natural gas exports to Europe via the US-backed Southern Gas Corridor, helping the region to diversify supplies away from Russia, Bloomberg reported. Gas pumped from the BP Plc-led Shah Deniz deposit in the Caspian Sea began flowing into Italy, Greece and Bulgaria on Thursday, BP and Azerbaijan’s state energy company Socar said in a joint statement.

The United Kingdom has began talks to facilitate a deal to build a new nuclear plant. The new energy structure is planned to be located in Suffolk, Reuters said. The projected output is estimated at 3,2 gigawatts of electricity. That would be enough to cover some 7% of country’s energy needs. The government has begun talks with French EDF about the construction of the new nuclear power plant.

The German leading utility company RWE and Norwegian oil and gas firm Equinor have decided to join forces in an initial phase of a Dutch initiative to make “green” hydrogen by using offshore wind power.

Crude prices were under pressure as oil demand fell amid further lockdowns emerged across the globe. Top consumers shun the market as crude inventories stayed at record highs.

A Russian pipe-laying ship sailed into position Saturday to resume construction of a German-Russian gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea that the United States has vehemently opposed.