The quest for European energy security this week suffered a pair of setbacks in Britain and Germany, two countries with large reserves of shale oil and gas.

Russia has been hit by lower oil prices and by Western sanctions over its role in the Ukraine crisis. Its rouble currency fell sharply against the dollar in 2014 and has yet to recover.

The Norwegian government confirmed Wednesday oil and gas reserves were discovered in a North Sea area not known previously to contain hydrocarbons.

The exchange in Shanghai has registered capital of 1 billion yuan and 10 shareholders. State-run Xinhua News Agency has the largest stake – at 33 percent – followed by the country's Big Three oil and gas producers. China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), China Petrochemical Corp. Group and China National Offshore Oil Corp. each own 10 percent.

BP Plc reached a $18.7 billion settlement to end five years of litigation following the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. It is the largest settlement with a single entity in U.S. history, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

Shale output in the United States will prove resilient to low oil prices likely to be prolonged by the prospect of half a million barrels per day of Iranian crude making its way back to the market.

Booming U.S. shale production helped cut OPEC’s global crude market share to a 12 year low last year.

China's apparent oil demand* in May increased 8.2% from a year earlier to 43.80 million metric tons (mt), or an average 10.36 million barrels per day (b/d).

Construction has begun on the Chinese section of the Russia-China Gas Pipeline, according to China National Petroleum Corp.

Egypt’s average natural gas production declined this year to 4.395bn cubic feet per day, compared to about 4.6bn cubic feet in 2014.