During the 3-month period ending Sept. 30, an overall total of 51 oil and gas deals took place, accounting for $91.2 billion, which was higher than the 47 deals worth $38.8 billion that occurred in the previous quarter, but still down from the 83 deals worth $125.7 billion that occurred in third-quarter 2014.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) was the world's sixth-largest oil producer in 2014, and the second-largest producer of petroleum and other liquids in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), behind only Saudi Arabia. Because the prospects for further oil discoveries in the UAE are low, the UAE is relying on the application of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques in mature oil fields to increase production.

Countries should not bank on oil prices remaining low when formulating their energy policies, as supplies could tighten from mid-2016 due to a drop in investment and falling U.S. output, a senior industry official said on Monday.

U.S. imports of foreign oil are rising again after a long decline, as the oil bust forces domestic producers to scale back.

With oil prices stuck at $50 per barrel, the Saudi Arabia’s annual export income will be around $130 billion lower this year in comparison to last year, Jason Tuvey, Middle East Economist at British economic research and consulting company Capital Economics said in a report obtained by Trend.

Estimated total U.S. oil and natural gas well completions decreased by 44 percent in the third quarter of 2015 compared to year-ago levels, according to API's 2015 Quarterly Well Completion Report, Third Quarter.

A Chinese holding company signed a letter of intent to purchase oil and gas assets in the Permian basin of West Texas for $1.3 billion through a limited liability partnership.

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday Kremlin-controlled gas producer Gazprom has offered gas supplies to Iran under a swap arrangement, and similar oil deals were also under consideration.

“Saudi Arabia actually triggered the price drop when it decided to defend its market share. The number of shale oil wells in North America has declined ever since, and probably won’t start to increase until the price hits $60[/bbl],”

U.S. Rig Count is unchanged from last week at 787, with oil rigs down 1 to 594, and gas rigs up 1 to 193.

In our view, Rosneft alone can offer European partners to participate in the projects for the amount of about $100 bln., the Head of Rosneft said. «The scale of Rosneft investment program assumes one of the world's largest anchor orders for engineering industry and chemical industry products, in the first place – about 4.6 bln. euro annually, pointed out Igor Sechin. – Аnd Rosneft aggregate demand for materials in 2016-2018 will amount to € 15.9 bln.».

The plan appears to be working. Oil remains 33 percent lower than when OPEC revealed its strategy on Nov. 27, trading for $48.38 a barrel at 10:13 a.m. in London Wednesday. U.S. crude production has retreated about 500,000 barrels a day from the three-decade peak reached in June to 9.1 million a day in the week to Oct. 9, according to data from the Energy Information Administration.

Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan all have safety cushions of income from oil and gas to help in the hard times of benchmark Brent crude under $50 a barrel.

Russia supplied a record amount of crude oil to China in September, surpassing Saudi Arabia for the second time as the top seller to the Asian giant, customs data showed, boosted by demand from independent refiners.

The API Director of Upstream Erik Milito released the following statement regarding the Obama administration’s decision to deny Arctic offshore development extension requests and scheduled 2016 and 2017 Arctic lease sales