Morgan Stanley ’s deal to sell an oil trading business to Rosneft , the state-owned Russian oil group, is close to collapse amid the profound chill in relations between Russia and the US.

Russia's top oil producer Rosneft has turned to UK-certified lawyers in its fight against Ukraine-related Western sanctions which have hit the company's output and prospects for its push to tap Arctic riches.

Crude oil prices stabilised Friday after dropping significantly this week.

The share-price boom at U.S. energy firms has gone bust, due to slumping global growth and tumbling crude prices.

This year's fall in energy prices is hastening the decline of big oil, as the seven Western majors sell-off assets, cut investment, return money to shareholders and shrink in size, leaving ever more output to small producers and state firms.

West Texas Intermediate extended its slump into a bear market amid speculation that rising global oil supplies will be more than enough to meet slowing demand. London’s Brent traded at the lowest price since December 2010.

Consumers in many Asian countries are missing out on the benefits of a global slide in oil prices and instead paying more at the pump as governments cut down on expensive energy subsidies.

French banking giant BNP Paribas SA has stopped offering letters of credit to finance commodities trades involving sanctioned Russian banks, according to people familiar with the matter—the latest fallout from tightening economic restrictions imposed by the West against Moscow.

The cost of Kashagan, already the world’s most expensive oil project, is set to rise by nearly $4bn as the companies developing it are forced to replace 200km of leaking pipelines.

A World Bank arbitration tribunal on Thursday ordered Venezuela to pay Exxon Mobil Corp about $1.6 billion to compensate for oil nationalization in 2007, though state oil company PDVSA expects to eventually pay closer to $1 billion.