The U.S. government is to check if sanctions where violated when Russia this week struck a deal to sell a stake in oil producer Rosneft to a consortium of Qatar's sovereign fund and commodities trader Glencore, the White House said.

Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) today announced a $19.8 billion capital and exploratory investment program for 2017. Included in the 2017 program are $4.7 billion of planned affiliate expenditures.

Glencore and the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar are to take a 19.5 per cent stake in Russian oil company Rosneft in a surprise €10.5bn deal

Indian state-run oil refiners have called for Nigeria to increase its total term contract volumes next year by more than 20% as demand from the South Asian country climbs, an official from Nigeria's state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation said.

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.

The balance between demand and supply in the oil market will shift earlier than previously expected due to OPEC's output cuts, with prices heading towards $60 a barrel next year, Statoil's chief executive said on Tuesday. Brent crude futures LCOc1 hit $55 a barrel on Monday, the highest level since July 2015, after OPEC agreed on Dec. 1 to curb production by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) from January.

The auction of the deepwater blocks, four in the Perdido Fold belt near the US side of the Gulf and six in the unexplored Salina basin further south, marked the culmination of the first round of auctions since Mexico enacted a sweeping reform to open a sector closed to private exploration and production for nearly 80 years.

Russia promised to support a push by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to reduce a global oil oversupply after the group agreed to cut production by 1.2 million barrels a day on Wednesday. Energy Minister Alexander Novak pledged Russia would cut its own output by as much as 300,000 barrels a day, a stronger move than the previously preferred position of a freeze.

India is expected to see investment to the tune of $20bn in next five to seven years in development of gas fields, country’s oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said at an event in New Delhi.

Oil companies around the world have together added $630 billion to their market value this year, the biggest gain in six years following a 30 percent rise in benchmark Brent crude. This follows a $1.2 trillion loss in value last year and $790 billion in 2014 as crude prices plunged.

Gazprom has started to vary its marketing strategy by using a variety of methodologies, including selling gas via the traditional long term contracts, via auctions, via Gazprom Marketing & Trading and via Wingas (its 100% owned European utility). As a result it has gained flexibility (that was formerly in the hands of the European utilities) and can adapt much faster to market changes.

EBITDA decreased by 12.5% quarter-on-quarter mainly because of negative crude oil export duty time lag effect, which was partially offset by higher refining margins in Russia. Profit attributable to shareholders was 54.8 bln RUB, down 12.4% from the second quarter of 2016.

"Libya is in such a dangerous economic situation, there is no way it can participate in OPEC production cuts for the foreseeable future," NOC Chairman Mustafa Sanalla told delegates at the Arab-Austrian Economic Forum in Vienna on Friday, according to an NOC statement.

“Security and access to funding are the biggest challenges right now to private sector players,” says Kola Karim, managing director of domestic producer Shoreline Energy. “The situation is really tough.”

Novatek is planning a new large-scale project known as Arctic LNG 2, which targets annual production of 12 million to 16 million tons of LNG, with operations aimed to start by 2025. Mikhelson expressed a desire to see Japan be a cooperative partner at every step of the plan, from gas production to liquefaction plant construction and management, all the way to sales. It was also made clear that should Japanese enterprises cooperate, the country could expect a portion of the output.