Two US senators are considering drafting further sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline if Moscow goes ahead and finishes laying pipes, in another blow to a project which has already faced delays.

The Cypriot cabinet on Thursday ratified the EastMed gas pipeline project, Energy Minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis said in a statement. The project was signed in January by Greece, Israel, and Cyprus. The pipeline includes 1,300km of offshore and 600km of onshore sections. It will transport natural gas from the Levantine Basin in Israel and gas fields in Cypriot waters to Greece and Italy.

The coronavirus crisis is causing the biggest fall in global energy investment in history, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Before the pandemic, funding was set to rise 2%, but now it’s predicted to plunge 20%, it pointed out. Fossil fuels are hit hardest, with a 30% funding drop expected for oil and a 15% fall for coal, while investment in renewables is down 10%, about half of what is needed to combat climate change.

Six Danish companies have teamed up to build what could be the biggest electrolyser in the world outside Copenhagen, hoping to turn wind power from a new energy island in the Baltic into green jet fuel for Copenhagen airport, the Local reported. The plant should from 2030 be able to supply annually 250,000 tonnes of sustainable fuel for buses, trucks, ships and aircraft.

Europe’s second highest court has rejected a challenge by the operators of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines against EU gas rules, saying it was up individual member states to enforce them, news wires repported. The Nord Stream 2 operating company had said the EU rules, which require separate companies to build, operate and own pipelines, would weaken the basis for funding the project, and turned to the courts to annul a relevant EU gas directive amendment adopted last year.

Oil prices rose on Thursday to their highest since March, supported by lower US crude inventories, OPEC-led supply cuts and recovering demand as governments ease restrictions on people’s movements imposed due to the coronavirus crisis, Reuters reports.

Germany's energy regulator on Friday declined to grant a waiver of EU gas directives to the operators of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, news wires reported. With the move it dealt a fresh blow to the project to carry gas from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea.

Norway’s $1trn wealth fund is excluding some of the world’s biggest commodities firms from its portfolio, including Glencore and Anglo American, because of their use and production of coal. Underlining the growing role of climate considerations for long-term investors, the fund is also excluding German utility RWE, South African petrochemicals firm Sasol and Dutch company AGL Energy over their use of coal.

Saudi Arabia said Monday it had asked oil giant Aramco to cut an additional one million barrels per day from June, to support prices that have crashed during the coronavirus crisis. The move will reduce the production of the world's biggest crude exporter to 7.5 million barrels per day, the energy ministry said in a statement cited by the official Saudi Press Agency. 

Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp are slamming the brakes on oil output, as the top two US producers plan for combined global shut-ins of 800,000 barrels per day in response to plunging crude prices and fuel demand.