Companies like BP, which said Tuesday it is cutting 4,000 jobs, are slimming down to cope with the slump in oil, whose price has plummeted to its lowest level in 12 years and is not expected to recover significantly for months, possibly years. California-based Chevron said last fall that it would eliminate 7,000 jobs, while rival Shell announced 6,500 layoffs.

Crude oil production in February from seven major US shale plays is expected to fall 116,000 b/d to 4.83 million b/d. Production from the Eagle Ford is seen dropping 72,000 b/d during the month to 1.15 million b/d, followed by a 24,000-b/d loss in the Bakken to 1.1 million b/d and 23,000-b/d loss in the Niobrara to 371,000 b/d.

Global LNG output is expected to rise by a third to about 330 million metric tons annually by 2018, according to Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Most of the new fuel will come from the U.S. and Australia, which is poised to topple Qatar as the biggest supplier. Unlike Saudi Arabia, the largest oil shipper, Qatar won’t be fighting for market share at the expense of earnings.

Iran needs $20bn to develop the remaining phases of the South Pars gas field, energy minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said

Natural gas demand is expected to rise to 199 billion cubic meters in 2016, Zhu Fang, head of market information department at the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association told Reuters after a media briefing by the association on Tuesday in Beijing.

Oil companies including Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron have already slashed tens of thousands jobs globally to deal with a near 75 percent drop in oil prices since June 2014 that has seen earnings collapse.

“The advent of [more sellers of] LNG is another challenge of the gas market,” Adeli said and noted that the U.S. has utilised modern technologies to produce gas from shale, so that the country has been turned from a gas importer to an exporter. Australia, another OECD country with no interest in joining organisations that could be seen as cartels, is already an LNG exporter and its output is rising sharply over the coming few years.

Having a robust regulatory approval system is critical for governments—and the energy sector–to ensure that energy products get to world markets safely and in environmentally friendly, socially accepted ways

U.S. Rig Count is down 34 rigs from last week to 664, with oil rigs down 20 to 516, and gas rigs down 14 to 148.

Even if E&P clients are able to negotiate more favorable terms for their debt, the industry’s overextended balance sheets will put a cap on activity — even if oil prices rise. On the producer side, companies will most likely de-lever before they drill should some extra cash come in the door. For OFS, building all the new equipment such as walking rigs and big frac spreads to meet strong client demand has some players in this sector significantly over-levered.