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

Greece moving down oil prices. Oil prices fell on Monday, with U.S. crude dipping below $59 per barrel to an almost three-week low, after Greece imposed capital controls as lenders refused to extend the country's bailout.

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.

Share sales by US oil and gas companies have slowed sharply in recent months, in a sign of the tightening financial pressures on the industry following the fall in crude prices.

Благодаря достигнутым производственным показателям и внешним факторам чистая прибыль Компании выросла почти в 3,5 раза и составила 891,7 млрд руб.

Выручка от реализации составила 1 288 млрд руб. (21 млрд долл. США). На фоне снижения мировых цен (-12% в рублевом выражении по отношению к 1 кв. 2014 г.) эффективное распределение ресурсов и использование высокомаржинальных каналов реализации позволили скомпенсировать снижение выручки, составившее 6,3% по отношению к 1 кв. 2014 г.

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.