“Geopolitical turmoil that takes foreign oil supplies offline can be difficult to predict or control, but the U.S. will always have control over how much energy we produce here at home. With the right policies, our energy renaissance can endure for decades and help even more families afford to take a vacation on Memorial Day weekend.”

Russian energy company Gazprom has made it clear that it intends to move forward with the construction of the Turkish Stream natural gas pipeline as quickly as possible, whether or not the project can overcome political obstacles in Europe.

Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia will sign an agreement to interconnect their natural gas networks whih to allow also the reverse transit, announced on Thursday night the Hungarian minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto on the Hungarian public television station M1, MTI reports, according to Mediafax.

BHI Rig Count: U.S. -3 to 885 rigs

Prices have also risen with internationally traded Brent recovering from a six-year low near $45 a barrel in January to $64.90 on Wednesday.

Crude oil prices bounced back on Wednesday from steep falls in the previous session as strong Japanese economic growth surprised markets and the business outlook in Australia also seemed to brighten, stoking producer hopes of increased demand.

U.S. economy is thought to have shrunk in the January-March quarter and may barely grow for the first half of 2015 — thanks in part to sharp cuts in energy drilling. And despite their savings at the gas pump, consumers have slowed rather than increased their spending.

As the United States raced over the past five years toward becoming a global petroleum powerhouse, the world's biggest oil exporter Saudi Arabia quietly seized a market milestone from America: the largest source of peak summer demand.

Analysts at Moody’s predict that the default rate for oil and gas companies with lower credit ratings — B2 or lower — could increase to 7.4% by March 2016 from 2.7%.

The World Bank’s private lending arm is targeting investments in natural gas companies in China, the largest growing market for the fuel.