But Lee said that South Korean demand for LNG would keep falling in the short-term due to increased electricity output from nuclear and coal-fired power plants. The country is the world's second-biggest LNG importer after Japan.

India, the world's third-biggest energy consumer, is striving to grow its natural gas use and shift away from oil and coal for power and industry, but its lack of gas import infrastructure is stymieing faster adoption of the cleaner-burning fuel.

"With regard to the cooperation with Saudi Arabia, the dialogue between our two countries is developing in a tangible way, whether in the framework of a multi-party structure or on a bilateral level," Novak was quoted as saying.

Crisis in the global energy industry provides a unique opportunity to expand Rosneft and PDVSA cooperation, which may have a substantial effect on the global oil markets balancing.

In 2015 global demand for primary energy grew by only 1%, significantly slower than the 10-year average. This reflected continued weakness in the global economy and lower growth in Chinese energy consumption as the country shifts from an industrial to a service-driven economy.