Gazprom has started to vary its marketing strategy by using a variety of methodologies, including selling gas via the traditional long term contracts, via auctions, via Gazprom Marketing & Trading and via Wingas (its 100% owned European utility). As a result it has gained flexibility (that was formerly in the hands of the European utilities) and can adapt much faster to market changes.

EBITDA decreased by 12.5% quarter-on-quarter mainly because of negative crude oil export duty time lag effect, which was partially offset by higher refining margins in Russia. Profit attributable to shareholders was 54.8 bln RUB, down 12.4% from the second quarter of 2016.

«Прямые котировки нефти марки Urals – это то, что необходимо российской нефтяной отрасли, чтобы занять достойное место в мировой системе ценообразования на энергоносители. Важно, что ценообразование на экспортируемую российскими компаниями нефть будет осуществляться в Российской Федерации и сорту Urals будет придан тот заслуженный вес, который он де-факто занимает в международной торговле нефтью.».

“We expect demand to recover in 2017, then prices will stabilize, and this will happen without an intervention from OPEC,” Al-Falih said in Dhahran, eastern Saudi Arabia, on Sunday, according to the Saudi newspaper Asharq al-Awsat. “We don’t have a single path which is to cut production at the OPEC meeting, we can also depend on recovery in consumption, especially from the U.S.”

Novatek is planning a new large-scale project known as Arctic LNG 2, which targets annual production of 12 million to 16 million tons of LNG, with operations aimed to start by 2025. Mikhelson expressed a desire to see Japan be a cooperative partner at every step of the plan, from gas production to liquefaction plant construction and management, all the way to sales. It was also made clear that should Japanese enterprises cooperate, the country could expect a portion of the output.

"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.

"We will do everything that our partners from OPEC are expecting. To freeze oil production is not an issue for us," Putin told a news conference in Lima after the APEC summit.

A senior official at the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) said on Friday that the country has signed three memoranda of understanding (MoU's) with three leading Russian oil companies for bilateral cooperation.

Russia’s decision earlier this year to engage in talks with OPEC about limiting oil output has added more than 400 billion rubles ($6 billion) to the nation’s budget, according to two officials familiar with government calculations.

Russia's oil and gas companies will continue to benefit from the weak rouble while avoiding a major tax hike in 2017, according to a new special report by Fitch Ratings.