Nigeria's oil output fell close to a 22-year low this month due to attacks on oil pipelines in the southern Niger Delta, home to much of the country's oil and gas wealth, compounding the impact of low oil prices on Africa's largest economy.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, plans “significant growth” in output in 2016 and further international expansion, the head of the country’s state-run producer said, even as global oversupply contributed to a drop in crude prices from a year ago.

Libya's production was down to 212,000 barrels on Monday, after the largest National Oil Corp (NOC) subsidiary, AGOCO, was forced to slash output by one-third from southeastern fields, an NOC spokesman in Tripoli said.

Gazprom reported the average production cost of natural gas in 2015 at ₽1643 per 1000 cubic meters (mcm) or $27.09/mcm or $0.84/MMBtu. The corresponding numbers for 2014 are ₽1470/mcm, $38.73/mcm and $1.21/MMBtu. The cost in US dollars is affected by the devaluation of Russian ruble. The average US dollar rate in 2015 was ₽60.66 compared with ₽37.97 in 2014.

Amid improving market sentiment and a weakening dollar, the World Bank is raising its 2016 forecast for crude oil prices to $41 per barrel from $37 per barrel.

Canada's National Energy Board (NEB) projects that both Canada's natural gas production and its domestic natural gas consumption will increase through the next decade. Exports of natural gas by pipeline to the United States are expected to continue to decline. The planned construction of liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals on Canada's western coast, which would send LNG exports to Asian markets by 2019, plays a key role in maintaining Canada's overall natural gas exports.

A global crude oil deficit will develop before the end of this year, the chairman of Facts Global Energy consultancy Fereidun Fesharaki said Monday.

The sharp decline in oil prices since the fourth quarter of 2014 has had a significant effect on drilling in the United States. The number of active onshore drilling rigs in the Lower 48 states fell 78% (from 1,876 to 412) between the weeks ending on October 31, 2014, and April 15, 2016, according to data from BakerHughes. The decline in active rigs and well completions is projected to result in month-over-month onshore oil production declines of 120,000 b/d through September 2016.

A high debt-to-equity ratio can present challenges in the face of falling revenue, which most U.S. oil producers experienced in 2015 because of lower oil prices. A company agrees to the terms of a bank loan or bond issuance to fund projects with the expectation that its activities will generate sufficient revenue to service the debt and eventually repay it. Debt on the balance sheet implies future cash outflows. The need to service large amounts of debt as revenues declined made companies with high debt-to-equity ratios more vulnerable to losses than companies with less leverage in their capital structures.

Tehran is seeking to make up for lost trade to Europe following the lifting of EU sanctions imposed in 2011 and 2012, which deprived it of a market that accounted for over a third of its exports and left it relying completely on Asian buyers.