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.

The International Energy Agency estimates that over $25 trillion of investment will be needed in oil and gas supply alone from 2015 to 2040. So the long-term investment case for oil and gas remains strong, despite the fall in oil prices over the last 18 months. The concern is that prices seen in late 2015 and early 2016 may be too low to spur investment in projects that are needed to ensure long-term supplies. Without sufficient investment, the risk of demand exceeding supply will increase.

U.S. monthly crude oil production in December 2015 continued to decline, as oil production reached its lowest level since November 2014. Production also declined from year-ago levels for the first time in more than four years. This continued production decline is the result of lower crude prices, which have declined more than 70% since the summer of 2014.

Petroleum exploration activity in Australia has collapsed in the wake of the plunge in global oil prices over the last 18 months, a period in which the country's crude production has fallen to its lowest level in 45 years, according to a report released Wednesday at an industry conference in Sydney.