Moscow and Beijing have danced around a natural gas supply deal for over a decade, with price being the major sticking point, but the current dust up with Europe over Ukraine could finally open the door to price conciliation. “Conversely, on the Russian side, Gazprom might finally sign a natural gas supply deal with China, a contract that has been on hold over pricing. Considering the new politics in Europe, Putin might see fit to lower his prices to meet Beijing’s demands.” [Quartz]

The Canadian government yesterday announced LNG export license approval for 4 proposed plants – Pacific NorthWest LNG, Prince Rupert LNG, WCC LNG and Woodfibre LNG – totaling 73.38 million tons of LNG per year. “World energy demand is on the rise, and Canada has the unprecedented energy supply to meet that demand. The approval of these licences is a major step forward in opening the door for Canada’s natural gas industry to access world markets.” [Canadian Government]

An $8 billion deal to sell Occidental’s Middle East operations to Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar appears unlikely given the GCC’s current diplomatic dispute. “The notion that they were going to somehow cooperate with each other in an oil investment is difficult at best right now,” [Occidental CEO] Chazen said. “At their suggestions, we’ll probably make separate deals with the three countries with somewhat different assets in each one. In some ways, that’s a lot simpler.” [Bloomberg]