Low oil prices to hurt Canadian banks more than U.S. counterparts

Judge rejects BP attempt to lessen fines for Gulf oil spill

Plunging sales to Europe and falling energy prices are not only sapping the revenue of Russia's top natural gas producer Gazprom but also depriving the country's budget of much-needed funds.

Europe is luring twice as many liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers as last year and more are expected in what is now the premium-priced market after a year-long demand slump in Asia.

Natural gas prices are surging in their biggest move in a week as severely cold weather boosts demand and pushes prices to a three-week high.

The Interior Department on Friday proposed the first-ever federal regulations for oil and natural-gas drilling in the Arctic Ocean requiring companies to prepare extensive contingency plans that could swiftly respond to and contain an oil spill in the region’s frigid, isolated waters.

EOG Resources, the largest US shale oil producer, expects its rapid production growth of recent years to come to a halt in 2015, in the starkest sign yet of how weak crude prices are hitting the industry. The company told analysts on a call on Thursday that it was “intentionally choosing returns over growth”.

Italy's Eni raised its dividend on Wednesday despite a slump in fourth-quarter profits and like its rivals pledged to cut investment this year in the face of lower oil prices.

Trade unionists have warned they are ready to ballot on industrial action after companies including US-based groups Apache and Marathon , Talisman Sinopec and Canadian Natural Resources requested the move to a more demanding shift pattern.

The project to construct a new gas pipeline with a capacity of 63 billion cubic meters from Russia to Turkey has entered the execution stage, Russian energy giant Gazprom has said by a written statement on late Feb. 24.