Directors observed that the financial sector has remained sound despite the severe stresses. To make the system more robust, they encouraged actions to further strengthen financial safety nets through enhanced monitoring and an improved crisis management framework. Directors underscored the need for continued vigilance and close monitoring of the health of the corporate sector and its impact on the banking system.

The approval by the IMF Executive Board of the First Review of the program shows the IMF’s strong support for Egypt in these efforts.

I think there are three areas where we should focus our efforts. The first is excellence in our operations, or as this session’s title puts it, leadership in responsible operations. The second, is sustainability in our products - fully realising the benefits of both natural gas and renewables as well as our Downstream product range. And the third is collaboration, or simply working together, in our partnerships - the kind of working together that makes new things happen and drives real change.

From 2012 through the end of 2015, debt was a significant source of capital for the producers included in the analysis, with the addition of a cumulative $55.3 billion in net debt. Since the beginning of 2016, however, these producers have reduced debt by $1.4 billion. The combination of higher equity and lower debt has resulted in the long-term debt-to-equity ratio, a measure of financial leverage, declining from 88% to 80% for the group of companies as a whole between the first quarter of 2016 and the first quarter of 2017.

“Saudi Aramco plans to invest more than $300 billion over the coming decade to reinforce our preeminent position in oil, maintain our spare oil production capacity and pursue a large exploration and production program centered on conventional and unconventional gas resources.”

“The current period of growth should be used as an opportunity: to further safeguard the financial sector--by building up capital buffers and strengthening corporate and bank balance sheets; to address the issue of stagnant real wages--which can undermine the recovery and fuel discontent; and to confront the problem of excessive current account imbalances--with both surplus and deficit countries playing their part."

"Our gas in Europe sees increasing demand. Gas export pipeline Nord Stream is in demand by more than 100%. On certain days at the last fall/winter season, the flow stood at 111% of its capacity," Miller said.

Vietnam has extended an Indian oil concession in the South China Sea and begun drilling in another area it disputes with China in moves that could heighten tensions over who owns what in the vital maritime region.

According to the Supplementary Agreement, gas supplies to China via the Power of Siberia gas pipeline will commence in December 2019.

Exxon Mobil Corp. and other energy companies have joined President Donald Trump in expressing concerns over a bill to toughen sanctions on Russia, arguing that it could shut down oil and gas projects around the world that involve Russian partners.

Qatar mounted what appeared to be a show of strength on Tuesday, when the state-owned Qatar Petroleum announced plans to raise liquefied natural gas capacity by 30 percent. Its immediate effect will be to worsen a glut on the LNG market where Australia, the United States and Russia vie.

General Electric Co. closed its deal to combine its long-suffering energy business with Baker Hughes Inc. on Monday, creating one of the largest companies in the oil-field services industry.

Spain’s Repsol has agreed to establish a joint venture with Russian oil company Gazprom Neft, in the latest move by a European oil and gas company to deepen co-operation with Russia despite western sanctions targeting the country’s energy sector.

The Indian consortium led by the state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is willing to spend as much as $11bn to develop the giant Iranian natural gas field it discovered in 2008.

Russia’s state-controlled oil company is in discussions with Iraqi Kurdistan over helping it develop oilfields in disputed territory at the heart of tensions with Baghdad, in a move that pitches Moscow into one of Iraq’s oldest faultlines.