The North American market has continued to "grind slowly upwards" as the rig count, particularly in the US, ticks ahead from troughs seen six months ago, Martin Craighead said during a quarterly conference call with analysts. But "customers need to be more confident of the durability of those prices before making any significant change to their spending patterns," Craighead said.

The worsening OPEC equation presents Saudi Arabia with a difficult choice after its Algiers U-turn: carry a greater burden within the group, ceding market share to other producers, or lose credibility by softening the terms of the deal. In a worst-case scenario, Saudi Arabia will have to cut production by more than 1 million barrels a day, sending the kingdom’s output to a two-year low.

Big companies responded with big cuts. BP, Eni and their peers cut exploration spending by 35% in 2015 compared with 2013, Wood Mackenzie’s data show. Many projects now focus on lower-risk, lower-reward prospects as companies hope for incremental gains near existing infrastructure that they can bring online quickly and cheaply.

Russia is the world's largest producer of crude oil (including lease condensate) and the second-largest producer of dry natural gas. Russia also produces significant amounts of coal. Russia's economy is highly dependent on its hydrocarbons, and oil and natural gas revenues account for more than 40% of the federal budget revenues.

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) and Russian petroleum authorities (Federal Subsoil Resources Management Agency, Rosnedra) have entered into an agreement to exchange seismic data from the areas around the demarcation line in the Barents Sea.

Global offshore oil production (including lease condensate and hydrocarbon gas liquids) in 2015 was at the highest level since 2010, and accounted for nearly 30% of total global oil production. Offshore oil production increased in both 2014 and 2015, reversing consecutive annual declines from 2010 to 2013. Production from onshore tight oil plays has increased faster over the past several years and accounts for an increasing amount of total oil production.

"We have built capacity of up to 2.4 million b/d, but [we are] currently producing about 1.9 million b/d," Omar Farouk, the special adviser on international energy relations to Nigeria's oil minister of state, said on the ministry's twitter handle.

«Самое сильное и продолжительное падение цен на рынке за последние 45 лет в условиях нехватки финансирования рискует обернуться дефицитом ресурсов, который приведет к непредсказуемым скачкам цен и в конечном счете сильно ударит по потребителям. В текущей ситуации «заморозка» или даже сокращение добычи на определенное время – правильное решение для мировой энергетики», – подчеркнул Александр Новак.

A senior Iranian oil official here on Monday voiced Tehran readiness to join the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil freeze plan to help stabilize prices in international markets.

“We should be producing 9 million if it wasn’t for the wars,” said Falah Al Amri, the director general of state oil marketing company SOMO.

«Сегодня у нас есть общее понимание, что рынок восстанавливается медленно, инвестиции в отрасль находятся на рекордно низком уровне, запасы существенно превышают средние значения за пять лет. Мы видим целесообразность принятия мер для балансировки рынка в ближайшие месяцы с целью возврата инвестиций и снижения волатильности», - отметил Александр Новак, выступая на пресс-конференции по итогам переговоров.

U.S. crude oil production declined 8.9 percent from year ago levels. However, at an average of 8.6 million barrels per day, domestic crude oil production in September increased by 0.8 percent from August–the first month over month increase in six months. Compared with year to date 2015, domestic crude oil production declined 6.1 percent. Compared to third quarter of 2015, crude oil production decreased 8.5 percent for the third quarter of 2016. September crude oil production was the third highest level for the month and the second highest year to date level in 31 years, since 1985.

U.S. Rig Count is down 234 rigs from last year's count of 787, with oil rigs down 151, gas rigs down 85, and miscellaneous rigs up 2. Canadian Rig Count is down 47 rigs from last year's count of 190, with oil rigs down 15, and gas rigs down 32.

Shell’s net debt has more than doubled to $75bn since its £35bn takeover of BG Group was completed in February.

Many nations are willing to join OPEC in cutting production to secure a continued improvement in oil prices, said Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy and Industry Khalid Al-Falih.