Speaking at an energy conference in Bahrain on Thursday, Ali al-Naimi, said oil companies “need to increase investments in order to guarantee stability of market for the long and short term”.

“Capital markets are effectively closed to the oil and gas industry” in Africa, Tony Hayward, former head of BP Plc and now chairman of Genel Energy Plc, said at a conference in Cape Town last month. “A decade of exploration, with billions of dollars invested and only limited commercial success.”

CAODC announces its 2016 Drilling Forecast • Projected 2016 wells drilled: 4,728—a decrease of 58% from 2014 (11,226) • Projected operating days: 56,260—a decrease of 57% from 2014 (131,021) • Rig fleet expected to contract by 62 (758 drilling rigs to 696 drilling rigs) • 57% decrease in employment from 2014 levels (-28,485 jobs)

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

The country produced 44.5 million tons of petrochemicals in the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20, 2015), with over 10 percent rise from 40.5 million tons in its preceding year.

“The efficiency of Japanese investments (alternative to those in Russia) is mostly very low. From what we know in the last 3 yeast Japanese firms faced almost 600 bln yen of write downs (around 6 bln USD) because of bad investments in projects associated with hard-to-recover hydrocarbons in US and Canada, and also because of unsuccessful projects in the North Sea. And this had to be done in a period of high oil prices! De-facto IRR for international upstream projects of INPEX by the end of 2014 was 3.1% (Wood Macikenzie estimates). This is around 4 times less than a standard revenue ratio”.

По словам Министра энергетики, между Россией и Ираном были достигнуты договоренности о реализации двусторонних проектов на общую сумму $35-40 млрд в нефтегазовом комплексе, электроэнергетике, отраслях связи, транспорта, строительства и других.

"This is no new idea. A Russian-Iranian bank existed in Soviet time though it was later liquidated. All details will be discussed after a principal decision is made. For now we’ve agreed that Iran’s delegation will visit Moscow particularly for discussing all details and issues related to its location, conditions of work, and equity capital. Separate talks will be held in the nearest future when a delegation comes to Moscow," the Minister said.

Italy’s Eni executed a sale and purchase agreement to sell a 12% stake in Saipem to Fondo Strategico Italiano, as part of a plan designed to collect €6.5 billion.

A Chinese holding company signed a letter of intent to purchase oil and gas assets in the Permian basin of West Texas for $1.3 billion through a limited liability partnership.

In our view, Rosneft alone can offer European partners to participate in the projects for the amount of about $100 bln., the Head of Rosneft said. «The scale of Rosneft investment program assumes one of the world's largest anchor orders for engineering industry and chemical industry products, in the first place – about 4.6 bln. euro annually, pointed out Igor Sechin. – Аnd Rosneft aggregate demand for materials in 2016-2018 will amount to € 15.9 bln.».

The foreign investment arm of India's top oil explorer ONGC is targeting $10-$12 billion of oil and gas asset purchases over the next three years, including more corporate acquisitions, its managing director said.

Norwegian petroleum and other liquids production, which had been declining since 2001, increased in 2014 and will likely continue increasing in 2015. The production growth in 2014 was mainly the result of new fields coming online, but also included a small increase in output from existing fields. Production has continued to grow in the first half of 2015 and is expected to remain relatively stable over the next few years as growth from new fields balances declines from older fields.

Britain has told Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman he was still welcome to invest in the country even after he was forced to divest gas assets there under pressure from the previous government.

Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) reported further cuts to its capital budget, reducing planned spending for 2015 by $3 billion to $25 billion and by $8 billion to $19 billion for 2016. The company cited low crude oil prices and unfavorable exchange rates.