TAPI faces an uncertain future with the recent oil price fall, ambiguity regarding transit via Afghanistan and an increase in the estimated project cost.

Deals for North Sea oilfields — which have been held back by the plummeting price of Brent crude — could soon come back on stream, as a new tax cut helps to draw in private equity investors.

European companies are increasing their focus on offshore projects, securing an increase of their financing facilities and forging joint ventures to reduce costs.

But now, with prices low, the risk of getting busted by Nigeria’s navy now outweighs the get-rich rewards of sabotaging pipelines, stealing oil and smuggling vast quantities of it onto international markets. Indeed, some of these thieves have reverted to plunking fish traps in the waters they helped pollute.

The United States will struggle to follow through on threats to impose deeper sanctions on the Russian energy sector, as European fears over collateral economic damage leave President Barack Obama's administration with diminished options.

The world’s biggest energy groups have sold record amounts of debt this year, taking advantage of historically low interest rates to plug cash shortfalls with borrowing, after a 50 per cent plunge in oil prices.

Total SA is seeking the equivalent of up to $15 billion in Chinese financing to fund its expansion in Russia, its chief executive said, as U.S. sanctions complicate the French oil giant’s big bet there.

The US drilling rig count fell 56 units—41 of which targeted oil—to settle at 1,069 rigs working during the week ended Mar. 20, capping off the 15th consecutive week in declines, according to data from Baker Hughes Inc.

Could an oil and gas bounce-back loom in America’s near future? During his appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” energy magnate Boone Pickens seems to think so, forecasting prices to rise to $70 per barrel by the end of the year.

Private equity groups including Carlyle and Blackstone are to deploy billions of dollars in a hunt for acquisitions across the oil and gas industry, with a collapse in oil prices expected to lead to a wave of asset sales.