Brent rose 17 cents, or 0.3%, to $51.37 a barrel. WTI increased 10 cents, or 0.2%, to $48.22.

The demand for natural gas is poised to grow in the long term. By 2040, worldwide gas consumption is expected to rise by 1.3 trillion cubic meters and exceed 5.3 trillion cubic meters.

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 0.6 million barrels to 499.5 million barrels.

By the December cut-off date, Spanish plants generated 109,269 GWh of renewable power, up by 11.6% year-on-year, owing mostly to favourable weather conditions and an increase in the total installed renewable energy capacity.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index climbed 0.2%,

China Oil & Gas Pipeline Network Corp. is part of an effort by President Xi Jinping’s government to consolidate the nation’s major pipelines and other midstream facilities into a single firm, intended to boost competition among drillers and downstream oil and gas sellers. The entity officially started operations in October.

The total appropriation for the Department of Energy (DOE) is USD42.04 billion, which is USD3.45 billion above the FY2020-enacted level and USD6.31 billion above the budget request.

U.S. Rig Count is up 2 from last week to 348, Canada Rig Count is down 20 from last week to 82

Brent were down 38 cents, or 0.8%, to $49.70 a barrel . WTI fell 40 cents, or 0.9%, to $46.62 a barrel.

"Iran and Russia have always had close and growing cooperation in the field of oil and energy, and this cooperation will continue,"

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said his country welcomes the Russian companies’ investment making in its oil sector

Shale producers were hit hard after borrowing to expand production and slashed spending and output to cut losses.

Natural gas futures in Europe and Asia have climbed to their highest levels in more than a year due to a sharp increase in demand late in 2020,

At the close, the Shanghai Composite index was up 0.76% at 3,382.32, while the blue-chip CSI300 index was up 0.85%. The smaller Shenzhen index ended up 0.74%.

China will increase the share of clean energy sources, including nuclear, in its energy mix.