"The Kingdom's oil policies are rooted in responsibility, and Saudi Arabia is seeking to maintain that balance while also giving heed to moderate prices for producers and consumers,"

With income falling, the 13 members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) posted a combined current account deficit of $99.60 billion in 2015, compared with a surplus of $238.10 billion in 2014.

Brent crude futures were up 4 cents at $50.66 a barrel, after settling down 3 cents at $50.62 on Tuesday.

"We believe that the (function of) regulation has moved to three main players, which are the United States, Saudi Arabia and Russia," he said.

India’s economy expanded at a faster pace in financial year (FY) 2016[1] even as a number of its growth engines stalled. Agriculture – having faced two consecutive drought years – rural household consumption, private investments, and exports have not performed to potential. The oil bonanza most directly benefited the government, which for the first time in five years exceeded its revenue collection targets and used the resources to contain the fiscal deficit, transfer more resources to states, and spend more on infrastructure. Capital spending by the central government was ramped up, its efforts amplified by state governments that had additional resources from larger fiscal devolution.

The U.S. crude benchmark rose 2.9% to settle at $49.37 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while the global Brent contract gained 3% to end at $50.65 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe. Both contracts were rebounding after a six-day losing streak.

The California-based fund manager, which is among the largest shareholders of natural resources groups including BP Plc, Total SA, Glencore Plc and Chevron Corp. through dozens of funds, believes that $50 a barrel isn’t high enough to stimulate the increase in supply needed to meet future oil demand.

“Now is our chance, and we have a window of three or four years to act,” before the balance of supply and demand might change, said Ken Koyama, a managing director and senior economist at Japan’s Institute of Energy Economics, which advises the Japanese government on energy policy.

Shipping 110bn m³/yr would cost Gazprom a quarter of the amount it would spend if it used Nord Stream, while booking capacity for 70bn m³/yr would still cost it only a third as much.

Since January, nearly $2 billion has been raised by Canadian non-oilsands producers on equity markets, but most of it has been geared to paying down debt or funding acquisitions, not for drilling new wells