At 1040 GMT (5:40 a.m. ET), Brent crude futures LCOc1 were trading at $48.89, down 6 cents from their close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 was down 2 cents at $47.94 per barrel.

В качестве главных вызовов для энергетики Министр назвал глобальное снижение цен на углеводороды, технологические прорывы, глобализацию рынков и обострение конкуренции, рост вмешательства в рыночный механизм со стороны государства, замедление темпов роста потребления топливно-энергетических ресурсов.

"According to our plans, (Russian) oil output is going up next year. If we keep production at the current level we are making our contribution, for us that essentially means a cut of 200,000-300,000 barrels per day (in 2017)", he told journalists.

U.S. Rig Count is down 151 rigs from last year's count of 744, with oil rigs down 81, gas rigs down 71, and miscellaneous rigs up 1. Canadian Rig Count is down 10 rigs from last year's count of 184, with oil rigs up 13, gas rigs down 25, and miscellaneous rigs up 2.

Managing Director of Pergas Consortium Colin Rowley says his consortium is ready to invest in Iranian petroleum industry, train workforce and transfer technology.

A particularly important aspect of this consolidation pertains to reforms in PEMEX, the state-owned oil company. Earlier this month, PEMEX released a five-year business plan that aims at turning the company profitable by 2020, through efficiency improvements and a focus on high-return activities.

Iran and Iraq emerged as major stumbling blocks to an OPEC agreement on reducing crude-oil output, as cartel members gathered ahead of their official meeting to tackle the thorny puzzle of how to share the pain of reducing their production

Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 were up 85 cents a barrel at $49.75 by 1000 GMT (5:00 a.m. ET), having earlier risen $1 in a push against the $50 mark for the first time since the end of October. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were up 68 cents, or 1.4 percent, at $48.92 a barrel.

Iranian oil and gas sectors are very much attractive to foreign investors because of low cast of production, a senior expert said on Monday.

«Новатэк» ожидает, что капитальные затраты на проект «Арктик СПГ – 2» на Гыданском полуострове превысят $10 млрд. Компания ведет предварительные работы по проектированию, мощность предприятия будет аналогична «Ямал СПГ» (16,5 млн т в год), запасы газа территории могут обеспечить поставки СПГ до 70 млн т в год, ресурсная база проекта – 1,2 трлн куб. м газа и 56,5 млн т жидких углеводородов по категории С1 + С2.