Capital spending budgets are being cut back, drilling rigs idled and staff laid off. The remarkable growth of US oil production, which brought more than 1m barrels per day of additional supply on to world markets in each of the past three years, seems likely to flatten out this year.

In December Saudi Arabia’s oil minister Ali al-Naimi posed an interesting question: “Is there a black swan out there that we don’t know about which will come by 2050 and we will have no demand?”

Significantly lower crude oil prices have reduced foreign companies’ interest in developing oil and gas resources in sub-Saharan Africa nations, speakers at a Woodrow Wilson Center for International Studies seminar agreed. Lower prices also could give governments some time to develop better frameworks so economic and social benefits reach their countries’ general populations, they added.

Chevron Corporation executives, at the company's annual security analyst meeting in New York, expressed confidence in the long-term energy business and highlighted its growth outlook through 2017. At the same time, company executives outlined near-term actions to address the recent decline in commodity prices.

The oil and gas industry may cancel about $1 trillion of planned projects globally in the next two years due to the fall of the oil price.

Ex-BP boss aims to build major energy industry player from scratch Lord Browne heads new oligarch-backed $10bn fund L1 which is buying up energy industry assets while price of oil is low

The U.S. oil and gas sector bled away more jobs last month as sustained low oil prices forced energy producers to reduce spending, suggesting that further pain may be ahead for the struggling industry.

Oil prices fell modestly on the New York market Mar. 5, which analysts attributed to concerns about an unexpected increase in US gasoline supplies along with a strengthening dollar.

Oil production in federal Gulf of Mexico expected to continue increasing

“Why do you want to rock the markets? The markets are calm. Demand is growing,” al-Naimi told reporters in Jazan, Saudi Arabia.