It appears Gazprom and CNPC reached an agreement on a widely-speculated deal that was expected to be consummated upon Putin’s China visit this week. Reuters is reporting a sales and purchase agreement was struck, but the New York Times reports it could just be a memorandum of understanding, which is not binding and indicates ongoing negotiation. Price and infrastructure finance are two major details the companies have been debating.

Marketing the gas reserves discovered in Israel’s territorial waters via LNG is proving harder than might first appear. “Leviathan felt like Browse,” Evan Lucas, a market strategist at IG Ltd. in Melbourne, said today by phone. “It was going to be hugely costly for a very low rate of return.” [Bloomberg]