The worldwide rig count for October 2015 was 2,086, down 85 from the 2,171 counted in September 2015, and down 1,571 from the 3,657 counted in October 2014.

“The efficiency of Japanese investments (alternative to those in Russia) is mostly very low. From what we know in the last 3 yeast Japanese firms faced almost 600 bln yen of write downs (around 6 bln USD) because of bad investments in projects associated with hard-to-recover hydrocarbons in US and Canada, and also because of unsuccessful projects in the North Sea. And this had to be done in a period of high oil prices! De-facto IRR for international upstream projects of INPEX by the end of 2014 was 3.1% (Wood Macikenzie estimates). This is around 4 times less than a standard revenue ratio”.

The Commission would assess it "rigorously against the European regulatory framework," it said, and the project would have to comply with environment, competition and public procurement rules.

“There are a lot of gas projects under development in the world, and that will drive demand for more ships,” Kim said Oct. 28. “Growing environmental concerns also are pushing demand for more gas-powered power plants, which means there will be more demand for gas.”

Referring to the Nord Stream projects I & II, former Deputy Prime Minister of Poland Janusz Steinhoff said: “From the point of view of domestic diversification and policy, these projects are extremely irrational, because these are examples of bypassing various regulations to liberalize the gas markets which are in place in the European Union. In other words, Nord Stream I & II are not subject to regulation that gas pipelines running through the EU are, and this is an evident example of an irrational approach and a lack of solidarity in Europe.”

Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Total SA and BP Plc will retain $8 billion a year in cash by giving investors the option of receiving payouts in shares instead, according to Jean-Pierre Dmirdjian, an analyst at Liberum Capital Ltd. That’s equivalent to about 8.5 percent of total cash and equivalents currently on their books, making the so-called scrip dividend a vital tool as companies curb spending to ride out the slump in oil prices.

Turkey said in February it struck a deal giving it a 10.25 percent price discount on gas from Russia's Gazprom but that accord was not signed and state pipeline operator Botas said last week it had appealed to the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) after months of fruitless talks. "An agreement was clinched on the 10.25 percent, therefore we are taking that as our base level, but will seek a higher discount at international arbitration," Alaboyun said in an interview.

Advanced biofuel made from agricultural waste — the so called Holy Grail of the alternative energy industry — will not be competitive with conventional fuel until the oil is back to $70-$80 per barrel, DuPont has said.

Fossil fuels provide more than 80 percent of the energy Americans use every day, according to the Energy Information Administration. The government’s own estimates show that we will need oil and natural gas for decades to come and it’s a critical part of an all-of-the-above energy strategy that makes our country strong.

Torres-Barron noted that gas demand in Mexico “has increased significantly in the last decade and it keeps growing at almost a 4% yearly rate,” which will result in transportation infrastructure being expanded in length by 84%.