In a wide-ranging interview, Maria van der Hoeven, chief executive of the International Energy Agency said US oil production growth – which is heavily leveraged toward light, tight oil – is expected to plateau and decline post 2025. “The light tight oil revolution in the United States is changing the geographical map of oil trade.  But we also mentioned [in an IEA analysis] that this growth would not last – that it would plateau, and then flatten and go down.” [Christian Science Monitor]

European natural gas prices sharply increased on Monday due to supply concerns associated with the Ukrainian political crisis. However, few analysts anticipate a prolonged supply disruption and with comfortable gas storage levels and the Nord Stream pipeline operational, the impact of a Ukrainian supply cut would likely be less severe than in the past. [Financial Times]

Gazprom’s management appeared confident that Europe would require increasing volumes of Russian gas in coming years, when they addressed investors at an annual meeting in London yesterday. “Gazprom has increased its share in European markets because Europe’s domestic production has fallen in countries such as Britain and Norway … we see no signals that the situation in Europe will change,” Gazprom deputy head Alexander Medvedev said. “Europe simply won’t see the arrival of gas suppliers of such calibre (as Russia, Norway or Algeria) any time soon.” [Reuters]