Iran's deputy oil minister for commerce and international affairs, Hossein Zamaninia, said Tehran had identified nearly 50 oil and gas projects worth $185 billion that it hoped to sign by 2020.

U.S. Rig Count is down 2 rigs from last week to 698, with oil rigs down 2 to 536, and gas rigs are unchanged from last week, at 162.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent, two of the major crude oil benchmarks, account for about 69% of the weighting in the S&P GSCI Energy index. As a result, the energy index tends to follow major price movements in the crude oil market. With sustained, high crude oil production from countries like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United States, and Russia, global liquid fuel inventories rose significantly in 2015, resulting in crude oil prices falling to 11-year lows in December.

Russia announced state aid for a major energy project on Wednesday under a drive to shore up strategic firms as well as public faith in its banking system during an economic crisis deepened by Western sanctions.

BBC - Heirs to the Rockefeller family, which made its vast fortune from oil, are to sell investments in fossil fuels and reinvest in clean energy, reports say.

PRNEWSWIRE - Charles and David Koch of Kansas are the wealthiest individuals in America's oil and gas sector, with a combined net worth of US$83 billion, according to a Wealth-X Top 10 list that includes billionaires from Texas, New York and Oklahoma.

FORBES - Человек, который, по оценке Forbes, входит в число 50 самых влиятельных людей в мире, топ-20 самых богатых и, пожалуй, в дюжину самых ненавидимых людей на планете, постоянно рефлексирует. Однако, учитывая, что Чарльзу Коху исполнилось 77 лет, это простительно. Простительно потому, что недавно он назвал президентские выборы «виной всех войн», и потому, что Koch Industries является второй крупнейшей частной компанией в Америке (после Cargill) с выручкой $115 млрд.