Results from second-quarter 2015 financial statements of a number of U.S. companies with onshore oil operations suggest continued financial strain for some companies. Low oil prices have significantly reduced cash flow for U.S. oil producers, and to adjust to lower cash flows, companies have reduced capital expenditures and raised more cash from debt and equity.

Novak said the cost of shale oil production - between $45 and $60 per barrel - is seen as a benchmark for oil prices. He expects prices to be between $50 and $60 per barrel on average this year - in line with Russia's budget forecasts.

“When you look forward to 2017, the market looks much more in balance,”

Iran has projected average oil prices at $42 to $50 per barrel in a draft budget bill for the year to March 2017, a government spokesman was quoted as saying on Monday, expecting crude to stay in the current trading range.

Britain’s oil and gas platform builders are facing their worst downturn in orders for 25 years, threatening thousands of jobs across the UK.

Investors’s fears that Royal Dutch Shell will fail to complete its planned £43bn acquisition of BG Group have been exaggerated, Shell’s chief executive has said.

The latest tumble in the price of oil, which hit a six-year low in August, is expected to cut non-OPEC supply in 2016 by nearly 0.5 million barrels per day (mb/d) – the biggest decline in more than two decades.

With U.S. crude oil prices 47% lower in first-half 2015 compared to first-half 2014, U.S. onshore companies experienced a significant reduction in cash flow from operations. Most companies responded by reducing capital expenditures.

“Russia and OPEC have talked about cooperation in cutting production many times in the past, but the results of that were always dismal and disappointing,” said Nordine Ait-Laoussine, president of Geneva-based consultant Nalcosa and former energy minister of Algeria. “Russia has assumed that when oil prices go down, OPEC countries are in a weaker position and are more likely to be the first to cut its production, and they always did.”

Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia sees no need to hold a summit of producing countries' heads of state if such discussions would fail to produce concrete action toward defending oil prices, sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

LNG imports by 10 nations in the region that receive the tanker-delivered fuel dropped 3.4% from a year earlier in August, after reaching a two-year high in March, according to data from Genscape. Russian pipeline supplies soared about 20% from a year earlier in August, remaining at the highest level this year, tracking declining crude prices, according to data from Gazprom, the world’s biggest gas producer.

Brent crude oil prices will average $54/b in 2015 and $59/b in 2016. Forecast West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil prices in 2015 and 2016 average $5/b lower than the Brent price. The current values of futures and options contracts for December 2015 delivery suggest the market expects WTI prices to range from $32/b to $73/b (at the 95% confidence interval) in December 2015.

Russia is overhauling its approach to crafting the budget next year to safeguard reserves, highlighting the challenges it faces in steering the recession-hit economy through a downturn in oil prices.

In the first half of 2015, Saudi Arabia exported on average 4.4 million barrels per day (b/d) of crude oil to seven major trading partners in Asia, making up more than half of Saudi Arabia's total crude oil exports over that period. Even as global crude oil prices fell in 2014 and 2015, Saudi Arabia increased production and kept its export levels high, enabling it to maintain its market share in these countries. However, long-term trends within Saudi Arabia's energy sector may reduce its global crude oil market share.

Some of the largest U.S. shale oil producers have already begun slashing 2016 budgets, with some planning double-digit reductions starting next January, the latest sign low crude prices are forcing a radical adjustment in the industry.