A few items over the weekend for oil & energy traders to take note of.
Reuters on German Chancellor Angela Merkel, tried to soothe fears over the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline on Saturday:
- "I made clear that it is our concern that Ukraine will remain a transit land for Russian gas" Merkel said during a joint press conference with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
- Morawiecki said making sure gas still transits through Ukraine despite the introduction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline will lower the chance of "blackmail" from Russia.
(Nord Stream 2 is a pipeline from Russia, some EU members are concerned it will increase the bloc's dependence on Russian gas and could be used by Moscow to exert pressure)
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On Iran, Wall Street Journal report that the head of the United Nations atomic agency, Rafael Grossi, will travel to Tehran
- would meet Iran's nuclear energy agency chief and Iran's vice president
- meetings would take place on Sunday
- Grossi would give a press conference Sunday evening upon arriving back in Vienna.
- a last-ditch move aimed at regaining Iranian cooperation with the agency and averting a crisis in the nuclear talks
- According to three people familiar with discussions, the trip follows an understanding between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency that Tehran will grant the agency access to reset equipment monitoring the country's nuclear activities and resume cooperation with a probe into nuclear material found in Iran.
