The exchange in Shanghai has registered capital of 1 billion yuan and 10 shareholders. State-run Xinhua News Agency has the largest stake – at 33 percent – followed by the country's Big Three oil and gas producers. China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), China Petrochemical Corp. Group and China National Offshore Oil Corp. each own 10 percent.

Egypt’s average natural gas production declined this year to 4.395bn cubic feet per day, compared to about 4.6bn cubic feet in 2014.

The efforts of China to ensure its economic development and preeminence include the creation of the “New Silk Road” - the enormous system of infrastructure mega-projects to stretch from the Pacific to the Atlantic. If completed, it will be the largest infrastructure undertaking ever built. Natural gas features prominently in the plan.

The European Union would find it difficult to reduce its reliance on natural gas imports from Russia, according to industry experts.

Natural gas faces growing competition from coal and renewable energy sources at a time when its potential demand growth is slowing down, an International Energy Agency official said. “The last large contracts for [LNG] were signed in 2014 just before oil prices collapsed. We believe it is still competitive, but there are risks,” said Laszlo Varro, who heads IEA’s gas, coal and power markets division.

New corridors along the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline through the Baltic Sea to European markets should be in service by 2019, Russia's Gazprom said.

Argentina and China have respectively drilled more than 275 and 200 wells targeting shale plays over the past 2 years, providing each country with the potential to significantly increase production of shale gas and tight oil.

U.S. Rig Count is up 2 rigs from last week to 859, with oil rigs down 3 to 628, gas rigs up 5 to 228, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 3.

According to a recent report from Swift Worldwide Resources, over 150,000 jobs in the global oil and gas industry have been cut since oil prices began to tumble last summer.

States are attempting to get their hands on long-term gas supply contracts with the Russian natural gas exporter Gazprom and pave the way for a multi-commodity energy supplier business where they can influence end-user prices directly.

“Natural gas is a flexible, it's supply is abundant and diverse, its ranges of use are still expanding, it's supply is abundant and diverse, it's low carbon, clean burning, an ally to renewables such as solar and wind, and it makes economic sense.”

Russia could not provide Ukraine with the gas price discount it once had, days before new gas talks between Russia, Ukraine and the European Union.

Iran produces about 2.7m barrels of oil a day. But a report by Wood Mackenzie, the energy consultancy, to be published on Thursday, says that it could add 600,000 b/d of crude production by the end of 2017, assuming that it strikes a nuclear deal with the US and EU that lifts sanctions.

Pro-development policies could increase cumulative local, state, and federal government revenue by over $1 trillion and lower average annual household energy expenses by $360 by 2035, according to the study. A path of regulatory constraints would lead to a cumulative decrease of $500 billion in government revenue from 2016 to 2035 and an increase of $242 in average annual household energy costs.

Declines in oil and natural gas extraction and support employment tend to lag declines in crude oil prices. As prices of North Sea Brent crude oil fell from their June 2014 level of $112 per barrel, firms reduced the number of new wells drilled and the associated workforce. The count of drilling rigs in the United States, as measured by Baker Hughes, totaled 857 for the week ending June 19, 54% below the same point a year ago and the lowest level in nearly six years.