Through a series of deals with Rosneft, the Russian state-controlled oil company, Trafigura exported almost 9m barrels of crude in April, worth more than $500m, according to port data compiled by Nefte Compass, an industry publication.

Venezuela and Russia's top oil producer, Rosneft, have agreed on around $14 billion in investment in the South American OPEC country's oil and gas sector, President Nicolas Maduro said on Wednesday evening.

"Indonesian energy minister Sudirman Said met with Iran's oil minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh last week. We [Indonesia and Iran] agreed on two things -- Indonesia to buy Iranian crude and Iran allows Indonesia to participate in upstream business there," Dadan Kusdiana, spokesman at the energy and mines ministry said Thursday.

The UK's new Conservative government is planning an energy bill to set up the new Oil and Gas Authority with the powers it needs to become a "robust, independent and effective regulator"

Total has achieved the significant milestone of producing a cumulative two billion barrels from its operated deep offshore Block 17 located 150 km off the coast of Angola. With the recent start up of CLOV, Block 17 has become Total’s most prolific site with production of over 700,000 barrels per day.

At the oil giant’s annual meeting on Wednesday in Dallas, CEO Rex Tillerson gave a stay-the-course outlook for the company, which has seen profits decline recently with lower prices for crude oil.

China’s CNPC said Tuesday that it has made the country’s first ever tight oil discovery to exceed 100 million tons.

Crude oil prices are still about half their value compared with a year ago, but the now prolonged slump is unfolding such that another rise could be on the horizon

OPEC supply is expected to increase by 0.2-0.3 million barrels per day (bpd) between now and end-3Q2015, analysts of the US JP Morgan bank said in a report, obtained by Trend.

As petroleum minister during the 1970s oil boom, Muhammadu Buhari set up the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. It is an accident of history that the same man, elected president in March, could now be compelled to dismantle the state oil company he helped create.