The world may run on oil, but the oil industry runs on money. The US shale boom would not have been possible without a huge inflow of capital: the small to midsized companies that led the revolution raised $875bn from syndicated loans, bonds and equities in 2007-14, 83 per cent of it in debt, according to Dealogic.

Whiting Petroleum, the largest oil producer in the Bakken shale of North Dakota, has hired bankers to seek potential buyers after coming under financial pressure due to plummeting crude prices, according to people familiar with the matter.

While many may be counting on US LNG as an alternative solution to solve the diversification dilemma in Europe, Sergei Komlev, Head of Contract Structuring and Price Formation Directorate, Gazprom Export, says "not so fast."

The U.S. oil and gas sector bled away more jobs last month as sustained low oil prices forced energy producers to reduce spending, suggesting that further pain may be ahead for the struggling industry.

Oil prices fell modestly on the New York market Mar. 5, which analysts attributed to concerns about an unexpected increase in US gasoline supplies along with a strengthening dollar.

Onshore and offshore driller Nabors Industries Ltd swung to a quarterly loss, hurt by a fall in drilling activity amid a slump in global crude prices.

Oil production in federal Gulf of Mexico expected to continue increasing

“Why do you want to rock the markets? The markets are calm. Demand is growing,” al-Naimi told reporters in Jazan, Saudi Arabia.

Exxon Mobil Corp said spending will decline about 11 percent this year to around $34 billion due to plunging oil prices, according to a regulatory filing this week.

Investment by British companies slowed in the final quarter of 2014, official data showed Thursday, as the fall in oil prices drove the North Sea extraction industry to cut down spending on infrastructure.

The Scandinavian country is one of the wealthiest nations in the world, thanks to 40 years of North Sea oil production. The global financial crisis barely registered amid decades of almost nonstop growth.

Low oil prices to hurt Canadian banks more than U.S. counterparts

Natural gas prices are surging in their biggest move in a week as severely cold weather boosts demand and pushes prices to a three-week high.

EOG Resources, the largest US shale oil producer, expects its rapid production growth of recent years to come to a halt in 2015, in the starkest sign yet of how weak crude prices are hitting the industry. The company told analysts on a call on Thursday that it was “intentionally choosing returns over growth”.

Italy's Eni raised its dividend on Wednesday despite a slump in fourth-quarter profits and like its rivals pledged to cut investment this year in the face of lower oil prices.