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.

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.

The Italian energy company Eni has discovered a gas and condensate deposit in the rich Bouri Field off the coast of Libya, the second such discovery of 2015. Both discoveries come as the North African country is engaged in a protracted civil war.

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

OAO Rosneft may have to turn to competitors to buy natural gas and state aid to help honor a $50 billion contract it won away from OAO Novatek three years ago, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

To ensure one of the most valuable parts of the gas sector is protected, assigning responsibility and ensuring a fair price for gas storage operators may prove essential to the continent’s security of supply.

To help Gazprom reach Central European markets, Russia has advocated the construction of a pipeline that would run from Greece to Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary

Условия программы кредитования Греции по линии МВФ вряд ли позволят стране обратиться к России за финансовой поддержкой строительства газопровода от трубопровода "Турецкий поток", сообщил журналистам замминистра финансов России Сергей Сторчак.

Russian energy company Gazprom has made it clear that it intends to move forward with the construction of the Turkish Stream natural gas pipeline as quickly as possible, whether or not the project can overcome political obstacles in Europe.

Prices have also risen with internationally traded Brent recovering from a six-year low near $45 a barrel in January to $64.90 on Wednesday.

Analysts at Moody’s predict that the default rate for oil and gas companies with lower credit ratings — B2 or lower — could increase to 7.4% by March 2016 from 2.7%.

More than $100bn of spending on new projects by the world’s energy companies has been slowed, postponed or axed following the oil price plunge, evidence of the drastic industry action that will curb output in coming years.

Sanctions have stopped Russia’s state-controlled oil group Rosneft expanding its trading operations, the company revealed on Tuesday, preventing it from capitalising on one of the main revenue sources tapped by western rivals during the oil price rout.

Naftogaz's role is the creation of an efficient gas market in Ukraine.