Iraq has every incentive to keep pumping all it can as its actual oil prices are even lower than the benchmarks. The official selling price of Basra Heavy in Europe is $10.40 a barrel below Brent for December, and trade sources say cargoes are being sold a dollar or more below OSP - or less than $30.

The 2015 payment, due next month, is set to surpass the record from 2009, when the Mexican government said it received $5.1 billion after prices plunged with the global financial crisis. The country’s crude has fallen by almost half over the hedging period so far this year. Crude sales historically cover about a third of the government budget.

Rising hydrocarbon production, retail sales and efficient management drove a Y-o-Y increase in adjusted EBITDA* of 9.3% (RUB 312 bln) for 9M 2015. A 0.6% Y-o-Y decline in sales was driven by the global drop in oil prices. Net income attributable to the shareholders of Gazprom Neft fell by 6.2% Y-o-Y to RUB 130.9 bln. The negative impact of foreign exchange rate differences in loan revaluations held back net income growth.

U.S. Rig Count is down 10 rigs from last week to 757, with oil rigs down 10 to 564, and gas rigs unchanged at 193.

Total petroleum deliveries (a measure of demand) fell slightly in October by 0.3 percent from year ago levels, according to API’s Monthly Statistical Report for October 2015. Production of all four major products–gasoline, distillate, jet fuel and residual fuels was higher than deliveries for those products, so refined products were exported.

Speaking at an energy conference in Bahrain on Thursday, Ali al-Naimi, said oil companies “need to increase investments in order to guarantee stability of market for the long and short term”.

“Capital markets are effectively closed to the oil and gas industry” in Africa, Tony Hayward, former head of BP Plc and now chairman of Genel Energy Plc, said at a conference in Cape Town last month. “A decade of exploration, with billions of dollars invested and only limited commercial success.”

Canadian producers are struggling to cut the cost of extracting bitumen from the oil sands, and their other wells are failing to match the efficiency gains of U.S. rivals, a Bloomberg Intelligence analysis shows. While output keeps rising in the Permian Basin, the largest U.S. shale play, companies are slowing output from wells in Alberta and have shelved 18 oil- sands projects during the downturn, according to ARC Financial Corp.

CAODC announces its 2016 Drilling Forecast • Projected 2016 wells drilled: 4,728—a decrease of 58% from 2014 (11,226) • Projected operating days: 56,260—a decrease of 57% from 2014 (131,021) • Rig fleet expected to contract by 62 (758 drilling rigs to 696 drilling rigs) • 57% decrease in employment from 2014 levels (-28,485 jobs)

Urals Energy PCL (AIM:UEN), the independent exploration and production company with operations in Russia, is pleased to announce the acquisition of the entire issued share capital of two private Russian companies, RK-Oil Limited (“RK”) and BVN Oil Limited (“BVN”), from Mr Ilya Glebov. These companies were formed in 2014 in order to participate in public auctions for oil exploration and production licenses in Russia’s Komi region. Following these auctions both RK and BVN hold licenses in the Komi region.