Investment by British companies slowed in the final quarter of 2014, official data showed Thursday, as the fall in oil prices drove the North Sea extraction industry to cut down spending on infrastructure.

Things are not any easier for the natural gas business in Europe at the beginning of 2015, but in a session dedicated to new customers and new markets, industry representatives gathered in Vienna, Austria at the European Gas Conference offered their views on how gas might regain its position amid the numerous challenges.

The Scandinavian country is one of the wealthiest nations in the world, thanks to 40 years of North Sea oil production. The global financial crisis barely registered amid decades of almost nonstop growth.

Low oil prices to hurt Canadian banks more than U.S. counterparts

Judge rejects BP attempt to lessen fines for Gulf oil spill

The Interior Department on Friday proposed the first-ever federal regulations for oil and natural-gas drilling in the Arctic Ocean requiring companies to prepare extensive contingency plans that could swiftly respond to and contain an oil spill in the region’s frigid, isolated waters.

EOG Resources, the largest US shale oil producer, expects its rapid production growth of recent years to come to a halt in 2015, in the starkest sign yet of how weak crude prices are hitting the industry. The company told analysts on a call on Thursday that it was “intentionally choosing returns over growth”.

Italy's Eni raised its dividend on Wednesday despite a slump in fourth-quarter profits and like its rivals pledged to cut investment this year in the face of lower oil prices.

Trade unionists have warned they are ready to ballot on industrial action after companies including US-based groups Apache and Marathon , Talisman Sinopec and Canadian Natural Resources requested the move to a more demanding shift pattern.

Shale gas and tight oil are commercially produced in just four countries