“Low oil prices fuel a reduction in risk-taking, and when there is less risk-taking, asset prices will fall. It can lead to a downward asset price spiral,”

“We furnish 20 percent of China’s crude oil imports – about one million barrels a day. But there’s a significant gap in what we are doing now, and what we can offer,” Nasser said. “Our investments in China’s entire oil value chain – integrating supply, refining, chemicals, lubes, distribution and marketing – don’t match our supply.”

PetroChina Co Ltd on Wednesday said profit fell 70 percent last year as low prices brought down upstream earnings, eclipsing the impact of a jump in natural gas income brought about in part by pipeline consolidation.

The average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States gained nearly 25 cents in the past four weeks, according to a survey released on Sunday.

Eni expects 1.6 billion boe in oil and gas discoveries during the period while maintaining average exploration spending in line with 2015 levels. Notwithstanding an 18% reduction in overall upstream capex, cumulative production growth of 13% to 2019 is expected.

Rosneft said on Wednesday it had signed a binding agreement to sell a 29.9 per cent interest in its Taas-Yuriakh subsidiary, which operates one of the largest oil and gasfields in eastern Siberia, to a consortium of three Indian companies: Oil India, Indian Oil and Bharat Petroresources.

Britain's finance minister George Osborne will cut taxes by 1 billion pounds ($1.41 billion) over five years for energy companies pumping oil from the country's North Sea fields, in a boost for an industry suffering low crude prices.

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose 2.2% to $41.23 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures exchange. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate futures were trading up 2.7% at $39.50 a barrel.

Additional regulations on methane by the administration could discourage the shale energy revolution that has helped America lead the world in reducing emissions while significantly lowering the costs of energy to consumers. The administration is catering to environmental extremists at the expense of American consumers.

Oil prices have rallied by almost 50 per cent since dropping below $30 a barrel in January, tempting producers to grab any price that will allow them to keep operating through the worst commodity crash in more than 20 years.