“I trust Saudi Arabia will act responsibly in line with its reputation," Birol, who worked for OPEC before joining the IEA 20 years ago, told Reuters on the sidelines of a the global climate change summit in Paris.

If current production remains unchanged at 31.5 million barrels a day, markets will still be oversupplied by 700,000 barrels a day in 2016—though that would be less than the glut of 1.8 million a barrel a day OPEC estimates for this year.

“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.”

В ходе обсуждения европейских инфраструктурных проектов Панагиотис Скурлетис заявил, что греческая сторона не подписывала обращение министров ряда европейских стран относительно проекта третьей и четвертой ниток газопровода «Северный поток – 2», которое было направлено в адрес Еврокомиссии в конце ноября.

Правительственный комитет по делам Евросоюза принял решение о том, что Чехия не присоединится к протестному письму 7 стран Центральной Европы против строительства двух новых веток газопровода "Северный поток".

В 2015 году спрос французских потребителей на российский газ активно растет. За 11 месяцев «Газпром» экспортировал в республику 8,7 млрд куб. м газа. Это почти на 32% больше, чем за аналогичный период 2014 года (6,6 млрд куб. м).

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.

Norway traditionally vies with Russia to be the EU’s top gas supplier, providing about 30 per cent of import demand. In terms of energy security, EU officials hail Norway as a model of stability compared with the political and commercial risks associated with Russia and Algeria.

The mistaken prognoses highlight the challenges OPEC faces on Friday when the group’s ministers gather in Vienna for a potentially contentious meeting.

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.

Saudi Arabia, which has so far resisted any market intervention to prop up oil prices, will propose the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) cut output by 1 million barrels per day (bpd) next year, Energy Intelligence reported.

U.S. oil production decreased on 259,000 barrels per day

"I will defend the position for the construction of Nord Stream II and (a) gas hub in Bulgaria - it is advantageous for the country and nobody can reproach me for that," Borisov told reporters.