Canadian producers are struggling to cut the cost of extracting bitumen from the oil sands, and their other wells are failing to match the efficiency gains of U.S. rivals, a Bloomberg Intelligence analysis shows. While output keeps rising in the Permian Basin, the largest U.S. shale play, companies are slowing output from wells in Alberta and have shelved 18 oil- sands projects during the downturn, according to ARC Financial Corp.

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)

Urals Energy PCL (AIM:UEN), the independent exploration and production company with operations in Russia, is pleased to announce the acquisition of the entire issued share capital of two private Russian companies, RK-Oil Limited (“RK”) and BVN Oil Limited (“BVN”), from Mr Ilya Glebov. These companies were formed in 2014 in order to participate in public auctions for oil exploration and production licenses in Russia’s Komi region. Following these auctions both RK and BVN hold licenses in the Komi region.

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

Algeria and Libya may reduce deliveries to Europe in the next two to three years because of political instability, lack of investment and contract renegotiations, according to Carlo Malacarne, CEO of Italy’s Snam, Europe’s biggest gas transmission operator by pipeline length and storage capacity. Its Italian network includes entry points for gas arriving from North Africa and Russia.

Глава Минэнерго России заверил, что несмотря на продвижение по строительству второй ветки газопровода «Северный поток», проект «Турецкий поток» по-прежнему актуален. «Есть Турция сама по себе как потребитель, и есть потребности юго-восточной Европы, Италии, которые также самодостаточны, под них можно строить инфраструктуру», - сказал Александр Новак.

International and U.S. upstream oil companies wrote down $38 billion in assets in the third quarter of 2015, the largest for any quarter since at least 2008 for this set of 46 companies. Low oil prices continue to have a significant effect on the value of companies' assets and future prospects as well as on current revenue.

The financing problems for the project stems from U.S.-led sanctions against Russia’s oil and natural gas sector over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2014. Also, in June the EU extended economic sanctions on Russia until January 3, in a move that media said at the time was “keeping up pressure on Moscow to help resolve the Ukraine conflict.”

Azerbaijan’s commercial gas production increased by 6.2 percent in 10 month of 2015, compared to the same period in last year, the State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan reported on November 17.

Statoil ASA announced that it will vacate leases it holds in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska and close its office in Anchorage because they are no longer competitive. Its Nov. 17 action came after Shell Offshore Co. made a similar move with its Alaska federal offshore leases for the same reason.

Устойчивой тенденции растущего или убывающего ценового тренда сейчас не наблюдается. Россия не рассматривает возможность снижения добычи для стабилизации нефтяного рынка и ожидает его балансировки под воздействием фундаментальных факторов. Важная тенденция газового рынка – уменьшение ценового арбитража между рынками Европы, АТР и Северной Америки.

Александр Новак сообщил, что в 2015 году в нефтяной отрасли ожидается 1 трлн 188 млрд рублей инвестиций при уровне добычи в 533 млн тонн. Также, по словам Министра, на нефтяном рынке идет сокращение дисбаланса спроса и предложения - излишек предложения будет ликвидирован во второй половине 2016 года.

“The fact is that the nation’s 21st century energy renaissance, which has made domestically produced natural gas cheap and abundant, has helped us achieve substantial and sustained emissions reductions without command and control style regulatory intervention,” said Gerard. “By contrast, the administration continues to hew to last century’s thinking that increased energy production and achieving climate goals are mutually exclusive, pursuing costly government mandates to detriment of the American consumer and our economy.

OPEC’s board of governors was unable to agree on the group’s long-term strategy plan and won’t present it to oil ministers when they meet on Dec. 4 in Vienna, two OPEC delegates with knowledge of the matter said.

“The drop in prices won’t be a concern for us,” Zanganeh said. “It should be a concern for those who have replaced Iran.” Iran doesn’t expect difficulties selling the additional barrels, and “the market has taken into account our return,” he said.