"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.

U.S. Rig Count is down 151 rigs from last year's count of 744, with oil rigs down 81, gas rigs down 71, and miscellaneous rigs up 1. Canadian Rig Count is down 10 rigs from last year's count of 184, with oil rigs up 13, gas rigs down 25, and miscellaneous rigs up 2.

Managing Director of Pergas Consortium Colin Rowley says his consortium is ready to invest in Iranian petroleum industry, train workforce and transfer technology.

Iran and Iraq emerged as major stumbling blocks to an OPEC agreement on reducing crude-oil output, as cartel members gathered ahead of their official meeting to tackle the thorny puzzle of how to share the pain of reducing their production

Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 were up 85 cents a barrel at $49.75 by 1000 GMT (5:00 a.m. ET), having earlier risen $1 in a push against the $50 mark for the first time since the end of October. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were up 68 cents, or 1.4 percent, at $48.92 a barrel.

Iranian oil and gas sectors are very much attractive to foreign investors because of low cast of production, a senior expert said on Monday.

Nigeria, which was Africa's largest oil producer until a few months ago, slipped into recession after its economy shrank by 2.06% in Q2, as the impact of militant attacks on oil facilities weighed on the country's economy.

Brent crude oil LCOc1 was up 60 cents a barrel at $47.23 by 1120 GMT (6:20 a.m. ET). U.S. light crude CLc1 was up 50 cents at $46.07.

"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.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed in September to reduce output to help draw down a global supply glut that is weighing on oil prices, but left the details of the plan to be worked out later. The group is holding a so-called “technical meeting” at their Vienna headquarters Monday and Tuesday to discuss the mechanism for implementing the September agreement. The technical meeting will prepare for OPEC’s ministerial meeting Nov. 30 in Vienna.