OPEC oil ministers expressed optimism about their strategy of pumping more crude oil and fighting for market share, amid expectations they will stick to their production target when they meet at the end of the week.

Russian oil output remained unchanged in May at a post-Soviet high of 10.71 million barrels per day (bpd), Energy Ministry data showed on Tuesday, three days before OPEC meets to decide on output levels.

The top oil officials of Iraq and Venezuela said on Wednesday that $75 to $80 a barrel was now a "fair" price for oil, reflecting an emerging consensus on a possible equilibrium for volatile markets

An increasingly assertive China has warned that World War 3 is "inevitable" unless the United States stops meddling in the South China Sea affairs. Earlier this week, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) said in a new white paper that it is going to up the ante in the South China Sea. In a sign of its growing self-confidence, Beijing said that it would now focus less on defensive capabilities, and step up efforts to build offensive capabilities.

The US and EU sanctions are primarily targeted at the country's oil industry, for very obvious reasons. Russia provides about 30% of Europe's gas, so it's simply not in the EU's interests to compromise Gazprom's ability to produce and export gas.

OPEC, which controls a third of the global oil market, and Russia, which produces another 12 percent, are unlikely to reverse their output strategy.

Norway's previously long-standing cordial relations with Russia have deteriorated to the point that there is a real chance that simmering feelings could escalate, leading to a breakdown of cooperation in the oil and gas sector, writes Platts.

The current recoverable volume of oil in fields and discoveries exceeds the estimated figure in 2005, and it is also presumed that more oil remains to be discovered. This is the result of the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate’s (NPD’s) review of the resource basis in a select number of fields and discoveries on the Norwegian shelf between 2005 and 2014.

Through a series of deals with Rosneft, the Russian state-controlled oil company, Trafigura exported almost 9m barrels of crude in April, worth more than $500m, according to port data compiled by Nefte Compass, an industry publication.

Venezuela and Russia's top oil producer, Rosneft, have agreed on around $14 billion in investment in the South American OPEC country's oil and gas sector, President Nicolas Maduro said on Wednesday evening.

"Indonesian energy minister Sudirman Said met with Iran's oil minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh last week. We [Indonesia and Iran] agreed on two things -- Indonesia to buy Iranian crude and Iran allows Indonesia to participate in upstream business there," Dadan Kusdiana, spokesman at the energy and mines ministry said Thursday.

The UK's new Conservative government is planning an energy bill to set up the new Oil and Gas Authority with the powers it needs to become a "robust, independent and effective regulator"

Total has achieved the significant milestone of producing a cumulative two billion barrels from its operated deep offshore Block 17 located 150 km off the coast of Angola. With the recent start up of CLOV, Block 17 has become Total’s most prolific site with production of over 700,000 barrels per day.

China’s CNPC said Tuesday that it has made the country’s first ever tight oil discovery to exceed 100 million tons.

Crude oil prices are still about half their value compared with a year ago, but the now prolonged slump is unfolding such that another rise could be on the horizon