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.

U.S. Rig Count is unchanged from last week at 709, with oil rigs up 17 to 541, and gas rigs down 17 to 168.

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).

OAO NOVATEK announced today the signing of binding definitive agreements as part of a transaction for selling an equity stake in the Yamal LNG project to China’s Silk Road Fund (“SRF”).

The push into Asia comes at a pivotal moment in Saudi Arabia. With oil revenue falling, the kingdom is tightening its belt just as a new king ventures away from the kingdom’s traditionally conservative diplomacy. The International Monetary Fund predicts a budget deficit exceeding 20 percent of economic output this year.

"First of all, our policy calls for maintaining production at 525-530 million tonnes (a year), according to our energy strategy"

Saudi Aramco, the kingdom's state oil giant, is seeking to borrow $4.7 billion from banks to refinance capital used to build a refinery in collaboration with China's Sinopec, three sources with knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday.

Any change in U.S. oil policy will have “zero” impact on the market because the country remains an importer, OPEC Secretary-General Abdalla El-Badri said Tuesday.

The United States has estimated Islamic State was selling as much as $40 million a month of oil, which was then spirited on trucks across the battle lines of the Syrian civil war and sometimes farther.

Indonesia wouldn’t try to block an OPEC decision to throttle back output “as long as we wouldn’t get cut,” the country’s OPEC Governor Widhyawan Prawiraatmadja said in an interview in Jakarta on Tuesday. “We are new, we like to listen, to observe,” he said, adding he didn’t know what price level would trigger an extraordinary OPEC meet.

Suncor Energy today announced that it is sending a letter to shareholders of Canadian Oil Sands Limited ("COS"). The letter outlines the value of Suncor's offer to purchase all of the shares of COS against the poor performance and track record of COS and what Suncor believes are the severe risks facing COS as an independent company both now and in the future. Suncor strongly encourages COS shareholders to tender to its offer.

Brent LCOc1, the global benchmark, was at $37.74 at 0440 GMT, down 18 cents from its last settlement after rising slightly earlier on Tuesday.

Международное рейтинговое агентство Moody's ухудшило свой прогноз по цене нефти марки Brent в 2016 году до 43 долларов за баррель с ожидавшихся ранее 53 долларов за баррель в связи с тем, что высокий уровень добычи нефти значительно превысил рост ее потребления.

The situation is complicated further by ISIS operating largely on a cash basis, making it difficult to impose sanctions, the witnesses said. Financial pressure could be applied on entities and governments in adjacent countries that do business with the group.

Natural-gas prices plunged to a 14-year low, as the warmest start to winter on record in the U.S. saps demand for the heating fuel and deals another blow to struggling energy companies.