Front month U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were trading at $38.02 per barrel at 0653 GMT, up 76 cents, or 2 percent, from their last close. International Brent futures were up 60 cents at $40.03 a barrel.

Gas shall play a more important role, with more shares in the total Chinese primary energy mix. And, the Chinese natural gas market is at a turning point, as indicated by many experts at Gastech 2015’s conference. The Chinese gas industry is facing many challenges also because of gas demand contraction due to the new normal Chinese economy. In the previous 10-15 years, we had double digit gas demand growth, but in 2014-2015 it was only single digits. Last year it was only 8.6%. This year, in the last 3 quarters, the growth was only 2.7%.

Year-to-date, the goods and services deficit increased $10.8 billion, or 13.1 percent, from the same period in 2015. Exports decreased $20.5 billion or 5.5 percent. Imports decreased $9.7 billion or 2.1 percent.

Prices, which have swung between highs of about $42 a barrel and lows of about $27 this year, will continue to be volatile in the short term, Al Jaber said in an interview with Abu Dhabi dailies The National and Al Ittihad.

In 2015, LUKOIL Group total hydrocarbon production increased by 2.8 % y-o-y and reached 2.379 million boe per day. Crude oil production* increased by 3.6 % y-o-y to 100.7 million tons.

Natural gas consumption in the 28-nation European Union grew by some 4% last year to 426.3bn m3, according to latest estimates from Eurogas, the trade association representing 43 gas wholesale and distribution companies.

U.S. Rig Count is down 14 rigs from last week to 450, with oil rigs down 10 to 362, and gas rigs down 4 to 88. Canadian Rig Count is down 6 rigs from last week to 49, with oil rigs unchanged at 11, and gas rigs down 6 to 38.

The world’s biggest oil exporter lost ground to rivals in nine out of 15 top markets between 2013 and 2015, including China, South Africa and the US, according to an analysis of customs data.

China, the world's top energy user, is keen to boost cleaner burning natural gas consumption to tackle air pollution.

Even if demand can rise to meet existing and under construction supply, this doesn't necessarily support the development of a raft of proposed projects.

The drilling cost per foot, based on total depth, and the completion cost per foot, based on lateral length, are both projected to maintain these lower cost trends through 2018. Sustained lower upstream costs may affect near-term oil and natural gas markets, and ultimately, the prices of these fuels.

“The company continues to improve its efficiency responding to the challenges of the global market. In Q4 2015 upstream operating expenses per boe and maintenance expense of the Russian refinery in RUB terms slightly increased in comparison with Q4 2014, despite of the growth in industry prices by 10.7%. Increase in earnings before interests, tax and depreciation by 17.8% in 2015, in terms of significant decline in RUB and USD denominated oil prices show an effective control over operating costs that allowed the Company to reduce its debt burden considerably, significantly increasing the sustainability of the business in challenging macroeconomic environment”

Brent oil prices dropped below $40/bbl on the London market on Mar. 29 after news reports about the restart of production from Khafji oil field, which had been closed since October 2014. Kuwait Gulf Oil Co. and Saudi Aramco Gulf Operations Co. jointly operate the 300,000-b/d field. No restart date was given.

In 2015, the seven biggest publicly traded Western energy companies, including Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC, replaced just 75% of the oil and natural gas they pumped, on average, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of company data. It was the biggest combined drop in inventory that companies have reported in at least a decade.

U.S. crude production is forecast to drop from 9.4 million barrels per day in 2015 to 8.7 million bpd in 2016 and 8.2 million bpd in 2017.