Oil prices are in free fall this morning after it emerged that Saudi Arabia, the world's largest exporter, had slashed its contract price for its US customers in a further sign of an escalating war for control of global energy markets.

Crude oil futures close out October lower

The standoff between Russia and the West over Ukraine has increased Europe's quest for alternative suppliers of oil and gas and Canada's exports to Europe have already started to pick up in the last few months.

Russian oil and gas production hasn't been affected by Western sanctions

YPF seeks foreign partners to tap Argentina’s shale

Brent crude capped a sixth weekly loss, the longest losing streak since 2002, as OPEC boosted production to a 14-month high amid a global surplus.

Members of OPEC, the group that supplies 40 percent of the world’s oil, are engaged in an internal price war as they seek to preserve their share of an oversupplied market

Oil prices are likely to be mired near their lowest levels in more than four years in 2015 and investments will take a backseat, underlining a gloomy outlook for the industry.

The U.S. shale revolution has driven oil output to the highest in more than three decades, reducing America’s need for overseas purchases and sinking global prices into a bear market.

The 2013 Natural Gas Annual shows record natural gas production and consumption levels in the United States. In 2013, domestic dry production of 24.3 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), or 66.7 billion cubic feet per day, (Bcf/d) rose just over 1 percent over 2012, with Ohio increasing the most, percentage-wise, of any state.