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.

U.S. Rig Count is down 14 rigs from last week to 450, with oil rigs down 10 to 362, and gas rigs down 4 to 88. Canadian Rig Count is down 6 rigs from last week to 49, with oil rigs unchanged at 11, and gas rigs down 6 to 38.

NEO - The Koch Brothers emerged stronger than ever, along with a slew of smaller oil tycoons, who lack the kind of longstanding and entrenched influence wielded by the Rockefeller dynasty.

The world’s biggest oil exporter lost ground to rivals in nine out of 15 top markets between 2013 and 2015, including China, South Africa and the US, according to an analysis of customs data.

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.

Even if demand can rise to meet existing and under construction supply, this doesn't necessarily support the development of a raft of proposed projects.

The drilling cost per foot, based on total depth, and the completion cost per foot, based on lateral length, are both projected to maintain these lower cost trends through 2018. Sustained lower upstream costs may affect near-term oil and natural gas markets, and ultimately, the prices of these fuels.

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”

Brent oil prices dropped below $40/bbl on the London market on Mar. 29 after news reports about the restart of production from Khafji oil field, which had been closed since October 2014. Kuwait Gulf Oil Co. and Saudi Aramco Gulf Operations Co. jointly operate the 300,000-b/d field. No restart date was given.

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.

U.S. crude production is forecast to drop from 9.4 million barrels per day in 2015 to 8.7 million bpd in 2016 and 8.2 million bpd in 2017.