Exxon is the world’s largest listed energy group, and like all big international oil companies it is facing structural challenges that make it difficult for it to grow. Stability while throwing off a lot of cash may be the best they can do.

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

OAO Gazprom, the biggest natural gas producer, will probably see lower gains in Europe for at least four years as weaker oil prices and rising competition threaten to further cut its profits, a government forecast showed.

U.S. shale oil producers, having weathered the worst price plunge in their industry's brief history, now face a dilemma: whether to stay in a defensive crouch after slashing their rig fleets, or start drilling more wells to capture a partial recovery in prices.

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.

LNG is expected to surpass iron ore as the second most valuable physical commodity after oil this year, according to analysts at Goldman Sachs, who predict it will top $120bn.

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

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.

At the oil giant’s annual meeting on Wednesday in Dallas, CEO Rex Tillerson gave a stay-the-course outlook for the company, which has seen profits decline recently with lower prices for crude oil.

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

OPEC supply is expected to increase by 0.2-0.3 million barrels per day (bpd) between now and end-3Q2015, analysts of the US JP Morgan bank said in a report, obtained by Trend.

As petroleum minister during the 1970s oil boom, Muhammadu Buhari set up the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. It is an accident of history that the same man, elected president in March, could now be compelled to dismantle the state oil company he helped create.

The crisis has crept up in recent weeks amid wrangling by national fuel marketers over more than $1bn in alleged outstanding payments by the outgoing administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.