2016

The International Monetary Fund said it was encouraged by the efforts of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab oil exporters to repair damage to their state finances as low crude prices slash export revenues.

The project, which includes plans to float a stake in the world's largest oil company and set up one of the world's largest government investment funds, is meant to provide a blueprint for sweeping reforms to steer the OPEC kingpin sharply away from its decades-long reliance on cheap-to-produce oil. King Salman said in a short televised announcement that the Cabinet approved the "Vision 2030" plan on Monday, and he called on Saudis to work together ensure its success.

China and Japan dispute sovereignty over a group of uninhabited East China Sea islets, while in the South China Sea, Beijing is building islands on reefs to bolster its claims.

Putin's interest in Israeli gas is neither secret nor new. In 2012 Russia's Gazprom discussed the possible purchase of a 30% stake in Israel's offshore Leviathan gas field. In 2013 Gazprom signed a contract to purchase much of the Tamar gas field's production but the contract wasn’t approved by Israel's Energy Ministry.

Russia has been developing new pipeline projects such as South Stream, Turk Stream and Nord Stream 2. If one of them were to be realized then transit risk stemming from Ukraine would be severely minimized and Moscow would have important strategic leverage.

During the first quarter of 2016, the decline in global activity and the rate of activity disruption reached unprecedented levels as the industry displayed clear signs of operating in a full-scale cash crisis. Budgeted E&P spend fell again and substantially affected our operating results. This environment is expected to continue deteriorating over the coming quarter given the magnitude and erratic nature of the disruptions in activity.

Net income (loss) from continuing operations for the quarter was a loss of $396.6 million, or ($1.41) per diluted share, compared to a loss of $161.1 million, or ($0.57) per diluted share, last quarter.

BP’s first-quarter replacement cost (RC) loss was $485 million, compared with a profit of $2,103 million a year ago. After adjusting for a net charge for non-operating items of $778 million and net unfavourable fair value accounting effects of $239 million (both on a post-tax basis), underlying RC profit for the first quarter was $532 million, compared with $2,577 million for the same period in 2015. Cumulative restructuring charges from the beginning of the fourth quarter 2014 totalled $1.9 billion by the end of the first quarter 2016.

Within unstable market conditions Rosneft proceeds looking for new sources of increase of the Company’s capitalization, boosting the efficiency of the investment program and its operations. This will inevitably relate to the operations of the central administrative office – we have set a goal to cut its staff size by 20% relative to the level of 01.01.2016.

Russia's largest independent gas producer Novatek plans to raise further $12bn in external financing for the Yamal LNG project, said Novatek CEO Leonid Mikhelson.