The country produced 44.5 million tons of petrochemicals in the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20, 2015), with over 10 percent rise from 40.5 million tons in its preceding year.

In Q3 2015 production of hydrocarbons reached 63.1 mmtoe (5.08 mboed). In 9M 2015 production of hydrocarbons reached 189.6 mmtoe (5.14 mboed). The level of production was ensured by accelerated drilling program, including increase in share of horizontal drilling with hydraulic fracturing, sidetracking, implementation of simultaneous-separate production and injection, measures of oil inflows stimulation.

Rosneft, a company led by Igor Sechin, said that in the first nine months of 2015 it produced 45.92 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas, increased from 40.87 bcm in the same period last year. On Friday, Gazprom reduced its 2015 forecasts to 427 bcm, a significant decrease on its forecasts released six months ago,which expected production for the year to reach 485 bcm.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin met with Emir of Kuwait Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah this week to discuss opportunities for cooperation in the fields of energy and diplomacy. The two countries also signed a memorandum for military technical cooperation.

Chevron Corp. is planning to lay off up to 1,000 employees working in the neutral zone between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, as a dispute between those countries has halted all work on oil fields for several months, according to people familiar with the matter.

Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG) (SIX: RIGN) reported net income attributable to controlling interest of $321 million, $0.88 per diluted share, for the three months ended September 30, 2015. Third quarter 2015 results included net favorable items of $5 million, $0.01 per diluted share, as follows: - $8 million, $0.02 per diluted share, in discrete tax benefits; - $7 million, $0.02 per diluted share, in net gains on early debt retirements; and - $5 million associated with discontinued operations and asset disposal gains.

The world’s six largest publicly traded oil producers have more than a half-trillion dollars in stock and cash to snap up rival explorers.

“Russia plays a central role in the question of how we Europeans can secure our energy supply,” Schroeder, whose friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin has been controversial in Germany, said at the Nov. 9 event. “Norway and Russia are the most secure and reliable energy partners for Europe.”

- Production averaged approximately 667,000 boe per day, an increase of 3% year over year, adjusted for asset sales - Adjusted net loss of $0.05 per fully diluted share and adjusted ebitda of $560 million - 2015 total production guidance increased to 670 – 680 mboe per day - 2015 production expense and general and administrative expense guidance lowered significantly - 2015 capital guidance reduced to $3.4 – $3.9 billion

The regulators gave a negative classification to $372.6 billion out of $3.9 trillion in loans impacted by the review, or 9.5 percent of the loans. Classified loans increased 9.4 percent from a year ago.

“The efficiency of Japanese investments (alternative to those in Russia) is mostly very low. From what we know in the last 3 yeast Japanese firms faced almost 600 bln yen of write downs (around 6 bln USD) because of bad investments in projects associated with hard-to-recover hydrocarbons in US and Canada, and also because of unsuccessful projects in the North Sea. And this had to be done in a period of high oil prices! De-facto IRR for international upstream projects of INPEX by the end of 2014 was 3.1% (Wood Macikenzie estimates). This is around 4 times less than a standard revenue ratio”.

The Commission would assess it "rigorously against the European regulatory framework," it said, and the project would have to comply with environment, competition and public procurement rules.

“There are a lot of gas projects under development in the world, and that will drive demand for more ships,” Kim said Oct. 28. “Growing environmental concerns also are pushing demand for more gas-powered power plants, which means there will be more demand for gas.”

Referring to the Nord Stream projects I & II, former Deputy Prime Minister of Poland Janusz Steinhoff said: “From the point of view of domestic diversification and policy, these projects are extremely irrational, because these are examples of bypassing various regulations to liberalize the gas markets which are in place in the European Union. In other words, Nord Stream I & II are not subject to regulation that gas pipelines running through the EU are, and this is an evident example of an irrational approach and a lack of solidarity in Europe.”

Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Total SA and BP Plc will retain $8 billion a year in cash by giving investors the option of receiving payouts in shares instead, according to Jean-Pierre Dmirdjian, an analyst at Liberum Capital Ltd. That’s equivalent to about 8.5 percent of total cash and equivalents currently on their books, making the so-called scrip dividend a vital tool as companies curb spending to ride out the slump in oil prices.