Moody’s last month also projected average prices of West Texas Intermediate crude at $40/bbl in 2016, $45/bbl in 2017, and $50/bbl in 2018. The 2016 price is down $8/bbl from the firm’s earlier forecast.

With no growth and no profits, the US exploration and production industry is facing a gruelling year. The gap between strong and weak companies is likely to widen. Those that have lower-cost production and healthier balance sheets should be able to stay in business. Those that have good assets but big debts may have to sell their most valuable properties. Those that have neither attractive assets nor strong finances will be heading for bankruptcy.

Iran needs $100 billion to rebuild its gas industry and has met with European energy giants, Azizollah Ramezani, International Affairs director at NIGC said in June.

Modi and Putin hailed what they termed a “strategic partnership” at their Kremlin meeting on Thursday and pledged to boost business ties, with the Indian leader signaling progress on defense projects to ensure his country upgrades its weapons capability.

Shell has already taken action to cut costs and reduce spending this year by $12 billion, but Tuesday’s announcement of a $33 billion target for next year is $2 billion below the company’s previous guidance.

The deal, which could be worth around $1 billion based on the valuation of a recent stake purchase, is expected to take final shape during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Moscow next week for summit talks with President Vladimir Putin, said the sources with direct knowledge of the situation.

Within the ambit of delivering strategic goals of boosting production, securing deliveries of oil and oil products, maintaining a market share (both in Russia and abroad), the Company plans to increase capital expenditures by a third (compared to 2015 levels).

Statoil and Repsol announce transactions in Norway, UK, US and Brazil

The $23 billion in downstream projects would enable a 7 million-tonne/year reduction in the Mexico’s carbon dioxide emissions.

The agreement will involve the development of five trillion cubic feet of gas resources, as well as 55 million barrels of condensates. Production from WND is expected to be around 1.2 billion cubic feet a day (bcf/d) and all the produced gas will be fed into Egypt's national gas grid.

The company also expects to close $2.3 billion of noncore asset sales, including $600 million from transactions that closed through the first three quarters of 2015. The remaining $1.7 billion represents deals with agreements in place that are expected to close in fourth-quarter 2015 or first-quarter 2016.

“This compares to $2.3 billion in 2015, so a nearly 60% cut. This is one of the steepest 2016 spending cuts we’ve seen across oil and gas producers.”

Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as Petrobras is formally known, is targeting $15.1 billion in disposals by the end of next year but has struggled to sell assets in less attractive prospects off Brazil and in the Gulf of Mexico.

Chevron, the second-largest energy company in the U.S. by revenue, and other major oil companies have been cutting costs and capital spending plans in response to an extended downturn in prices for crude.

“We are interested to come back to Iran when the sanctions are lifted and if the contracts are interesting,” Stephane Michel, Total’s head of exploration and production in the Middle East said at the conference. “We have worked in this country for a long time, so we know specific fields on which we’ve worked.”