The price of gas on the benchmark Dutch TTF hub was trading at €239.10 per megawatt hour on Wednesday, down from €265.33 on Tuesday and well below [26 Aug] Friday's record peak of €346.52. ... The lack of a panicked market reaction to Russia shutting down Nord Stream for maintenance -- a claim that Western European politicians disputed -- doesn't mean that the Kremlin cutting off deliveries will have no consequences....

Russia's Gazprom said on Saturday it would increase its shipments of gas to Europe via Ukraine, according to [Les Echos].
[...]
The company said it would ship some 42.7 million cubic meters of natural gas through Ukraine to Europe on Saturday, Reuters reported. Flows from the entry point at Sudzha were slightly higher compared to Friday's 41.3 million cubic meters, but that doesn't make up for the shortfall in gas that was expected to flow from Nord Stream 1

"Liquidity support is going to be needed," Helge Haugane, Equinor's senior vice president for gas and power, said in an interview. The issue is focused on derivatives trading, while the physical market is functioning, he said, adding that the energy company's estimate for $1.5 trillion to prop up so-called paper trading is "conservative."
[...]
So far Germany has introduced Europe's biggest scheme to backstop companies affected by the fallout of the war in Ukraine, setting aside 7 billion euros in loans to be made available to companies facing liquidity issues. German energy giant Uniper SE last week sought an extra 4 billion euros after fully using a 9 billion-euro existing facility, while Austria extended a 2 billion-euro credit to cover the trading positions of Vienna's municipal power utility. Finland and Sweden announced a $33 billion emergency liquidity facility Sunday to backstop utilities through loans and credit guarantees.
[...]
"Power is a local, i.e. domestic, market, so in this case it would be possible to do something governments could control," Haugane said. "But the issue of a gas price cap is different, because the natural gas market is global, and hence not that easy to manage."
[...]
The European Commission is also examining measures to help with liquidity. These could include credit lines from the European Central Bank, new products as margin collateral, and temporary suspensions of derivatives markets, according to a policy background paper seen by Bloomberg News.
[...]
"I have not seen any of the major trading houses have a liquidity issue, they all managed to find lines of credits and bank facilities and they are all making more money than they have ever made," Souki said in an interview at Gastech. "For the utilities in Europe, it is a serious issue because they are buying gas that is now all of the sudden is extremely expensive, and they are regulated by their respective governments."

The share of Russian gas in the European Union market has plummeted from 50% to 9% since the beginning of the current year, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday....

Russian gas imports by EU nations have inevitably been decreasing, Macron told a news conference following a phone call with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. He stressed that it was necessary to act against speculation on energy prices at the EU level, adding that France was in favor of putting a cap on the price of [discount] Russian pipeline gas ...

As part of a coalition of countries including the G7 and the EU, the United States will implement
a policy with regards to a broad range of services related to the maritime transportation (the
"maritime services policy") of Russian Federation origin crude oil and petroleum products ("seaborne Russian oil"). This ban will take effect on December 5, 2022 with respect to maritime transportation of crude oil and on February 5, 2023 with respect to maritime transportation of petroleum products.

This policy, constructed as a ban on services, will have an important exception: jurisdictions or
actors that purchase seaborne Russian oil at or below a price cap to be established by the coalition (the "price exception") will expressly be able to receive such services. This policy is intended to expressly establish a framework for Russian oil to be exported by sea under a capped price and achieve three objectives: (i) maintain a reliable supply of seaborne Russian oil to the global market; (ii) reduce upward pressure on energy prices; and (iii) reduce the revenues the Russian Federation earns from oil after its own war of choice in Ukraine has inflated global energy prices
[...]
7. How will the recordkeeping and attestation process work?
[table]
OFAC [US Office of Foreign Assets Control] will expect the actors in Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 to retain relevant records for five years.
[...]
8. What are some possible red flags for price cap evasion?
[...]
9. How will OFAC enforce the price cap?
As described above, the recordkeeping and attestation process is intended to create a "safe
harbor" from liability for service providers for violations of the maritime services policy in cases
where service providers inadvertently deal in oil purchased above the price cap due to falsified
records provided by illicit actors. For example, where a service provider without direct access to
price information reasonably relies on a customer attestation, that service provider will not be
held liable for potential sanctions breaches because of illicit actors who seek to cause a violation
of the maritime services policy or evade OFAC sanctions. ...
10. What are examples of permissible vs. prohibited transactions? ...

several EU diplomats said after consultations for a seventh Russia sanctions package over the weekend left some more hawkish member states dissatisfied.
[...]
Measures proposed by the bloc's Russia hawks would, among others, include targeting nuclear, luxury goods and Russia's IT and tech sectors as well as excluding more banks from the SWIFT messaging system, according to a position paper seen by EURACTIV. Germany, EU diplomats say, would be on board for more too, having pushed for a ban on EU companies providing finance to metal and rare-earth mines in Russia and on imports of uranium.
[...]
Nuclear energy, a key sector for countries like France and Bulgaria, is unlikely to be included in the [sanctions] package and has raised concerns among some member states over the maintenance of Europe's [old] nuclear power plants, several EU diplomats briefed on the weekend talks told EURACTIV.

The measure would have hit "the construction of facilities or installation of equipment for, or the provision of services, equipment or technology for, activities related to power generation or electricity production both in Russia or abroad". This could have affected the construction of Hungary's Russian-backed expansion of the Paks nuclear power plant, which Budapest would have certainly vetoed.
[...]
It is likely that, at least in the short term, Brussels will look at tackling high gas prices via talks with [AUTHORITARIAN] supplier countries rather than capping imports.

A group of EU member states, including the Netherlands, France, Poland[,] and the Baltics [Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia] have suggested a new listing criterion in which assisting with sanctions evasion and circumvention could become a ground for sanctioning individuals and entities.

Hawkish member states Poland, Ireland, Lithuania, Estonia[,] and Latvia had also proposed introducing a retaliatory ban on imports of diamonds from Russia, where Alrosa is the world's largest producer of rough gems....