Brazil’s troubled state-run oil company Petróleo Brasileiro SA on Friday announced a beefed up voluntary layoff program that could affect up to 12,000 jobs amid intense efforts to cut costs.

Leading global drilling and engineering contractor, KCA Deutag, today announces that it has sold its jack-up drilling unit, the Ben Loyal to Egyptian headquartered Advanced Energy Systems A.D.E.S. SAE for an undisclosed sum.

In 2015, LUKOIL Group total hydrocarbon production increased by 2.8 % y-o-y and reached 2.379 million boe per day. Crude oil production* increased by 3.6 % y-o-y to 100.7 million tons.

“Today, we signed a number of important documents aimed at further advancing the dialogue with our strategic partner OMV. Our relationship is no longer limited to business. By consistently enhancing our cooperation, we are moving toward our ambitious goals – increasing the supplies of Russian oil and gas to Europe and developing the scientific and technical potential of our companies.”

Natural gas consumption in the 28-nation European Union grew by some 4% last year to 426.3bn m3, according to latest estimates from Eurogas, the trade association representing 43 gas wholesale and distribution companies.

The sale of Aramco, or Saudi Arabian Oil Co., is planned for 2018 or even a year earlier, according to the prince. The fund will then play a major role in the economy, investing at home and abroad. It would be big enough to buy Apple Inc., Google parent Alphabet Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. -- the world’s four largest publicly traded companies.

The international oil company said on Wednesday it was co-operating with officials from both the Netherlands and Italy as they investigate the $1.1bn deal, which Shell signed five years ago alongside Eni, the Italian oil company.

BP’s Energy Outlook for 2016 forecasts that by 2035 shale gas will account for a quarter of total gas produced globally and China will become the world’s largest contributor to growth in shale gas production.

The framework agreement includes opportunities for joint investment in future oil and gas exploration, and possible oil and gas trading deals, including LNG.

But in order to extract those resources, BP has had to wage a battle to control inflated costs and root out fraud, internal documents and interviews with former employees of BP and its contractors show.

The world’s biggest oil exporter, known as Saudi Aramco, won’t cancel any oil, gas or refining projects, Amin Nasser told reporters during a conference in Al-Ahsa in eastern Saudi Arabia. Aramco is also studying a possible expansion of the country’s largest oil refinery, Ras Tanura, which has a capacity of 550,000 barrels a day, he said Wednesday.

China, the world's top energy user, is keen to boost cleaner burning natural gas consumption to tackle air pollution.

The deal, which resolves arbitration proceedings between E.ON and Gazprom, will lead to a positive one-off effect of about 380 million euros ($425 million) on E.ON's core earnings (EBITDA) in the first quarter of 2016.

“The company continues to improve its efficiency responding to the challenges of the global market. In Q4 2015 upstream operating expenses per boe and maintenance expense of the Russian refinery in RUB terms slightly increased in comparison with Q4 2014, despite of the growth in industry prices by 10.7%. Increase in earnings before interests, tax and depreciation by 17.8% in 2015, in terms of significant decline in RUB and USD denominated oil prices show an effective control over operating costs that allowed the Company to reduce its debt burden considerably, significantly increasing the sustainability of the business in challenging macroeconomic environment”

In 2015, the seven biggest publicly traded Western energy companies, including Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC, replaced just 75% of the oil and natural gas they pumped, on average, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of company data. It was the biggest combined drop in inventory that companies have reported in at least a decade.