“There are no geographical boundaries for profitability,” Nylund said in the interview in Kristiansund on the coast of central Norway. “When you work with solutions, optimizations, adjustments here and there, you see that the cost level comes down.”

Gazprom has already spent €1.8bn on purchasing physical pipe for the first and second “strings” - or lines, of pipe to be laid under the Black Sea. Pipe, delivered by Germany’s Europipe and Russia’s United Metallurgical Company (OMK) under the first string contract, signed in January 2014, is now largely stashed on the wharves of the Bulgarian port of Varna. The fate of pipe ordered for the second string, under contracts placed in March 2014, is not known.

OMV and Gazprom are two of the shareholders in the contentious Nord Stream-2 expansion project. BASF, E.ON, ENGIE, and Shell are the four other stakeholders.

Libya, an Opec member, is producing a fraction of the 1.6m barrels a day it pumped before the downfall of Muammer Gaddafi four years ago. Its oil industry and infrastructure has been shattered by years of conflict that has divided the country.

“The latest leg down in activity has led us to again evaluate our staffing levels against expected activity. Following which, we will further right-size the organization based on the activity outlook for 2016,” said Patrick Schorn, Schlumberger’s president of operations, at a speech on Tuesday in New York.

LUKOIL EBITDA REACHED $10.5 BILLION IN THE NINE MONTHS OF 2015, LIQUID HYDROCARBONS PRODUCTION INCREASED BY 3.9%. FREE CASH FLOW REACHED $2.0 BILLION

The joint venture between Rosneft and BP based on Taas-Yuryakh Neftegazodobycha LLC will continue further development of the Srednebotuobinskoye oil and gas condensate field which is one of the largest fields in the Eastern Siberia. The JV will also undertake the development of suitable infrastructure for further exploration and development of the region’s reserves.

Nowadays the proven shale gas reserves across the globe were estimated at about five trillion cubic meters, which was less than three per cent of the world's aggregate proven gas reserves.

Rosneft received advance payments for oil supplies worth more than $15bn in the third quarter — the first large-scale financing that the state-controlled Russian group has secured since western sanctions were imposed upon it.

“Despite of challenging economic environment, the Company keeps improving its efficiency. This is demonstrated by keeping operating costs in rouble terms at sustainable level in conditions of 12.0% increase in industry prices. Preserving the cost base and efficient risk management contributed to an increase in profits for 9M 2015 compared to 9M 2014 despite oil price drop. The Company achieved a structural improvement in the credit profile, while the debt burden was reduced to the target level.”

Germany will strive to ensure that all this remains under the competence of the German authorities, so if we can do this then opportunities for external meddling will be limited.

Rising hydrocarbon production, retail sales and efficient management drove a Y-o-Y increase in adjusted EBITDA* of 9.3% (RUB 312 bln) for 9M 2015. A 0.6% Y-o-Y decline in sales was driven by the global drop in oil prices. Net income attributable to the shareholders of Gazprom Neft fell by 6.2% Y-o-Y to RUB 130.9 bln. The negative impact of foreign exchange rate differences in loan revaluations held back net income growth.

For China, the opportunity to re-negotiate existing liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply contracts with Shell, which combined with BG would supply around 30 percent of its imports by 2017, comes at an ideal time because the world's top energy consumer faces a large surfeit over the next five years.

Urals Energy PCL (AIM:UEN), the independent exploration and production company with operations in Russia, is pleased to announce the acquisition of the entire issued share capital of two private Russian companies, RK-Oil Limited (“RK”) and BVN Oil Limited (“BVN”), from Mr Ilya Glebov. These companies were formed in 2014 in order to participate in public auctions for oil exploration and production licenses in Russia’s Komi region. Following these auctions both RK and BVN hold licenses in the Komi region.

The Qatar Investment Authority has sold its shares in Shell and BG for $1.5bn, according to Qatar’s Al Sharq Media.