Nord Stream-2 project would develop rapidly in 2016. The pipeline extension project continues to move ahead, despite opposition to from several European countries

Russia's Gazprom and a group of European companies agreed on the project last year, raising protests mostly among central and southern European countries.

U.S. Rig Count is down 14 rigs from last week to 650, with oil rigs down 1 to 515, and gas rigs down 13 to 135.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 117.11 points, or 0.7%, to 17603.87. The S&P 500 fell 0.7% and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.8%.

“The 800-lb. gorilla in the room, and by that I mean Saudi Arabia, showed it’s power,” said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital LLC, a New York-based hedge fund that focuses on energy. “They are on a mission to squeeze out the high-priced producers and aren’t done yet. Things could get very ugly in the second and third quarters for countries like Venezuela and Nigeria and for U.S. exploration companies.”

In July 2014, at the height of the Crimean Crisis, Ukraine imported gas from Western Europe, and particularly from Germany for $370 per 1,000 cubic metres. Earlier in the 2014, the country had paid $273 per million cubic metres for gas from Russia.

Mr. Novak said that the project could still be implemented if the European Commission develops corresponding infrastructure for natural gas transportation in Central and Eastern Europe,

CNPC said the entire pipeline project is expected to be completed and operational by the end of 2018. Construction of the Chinese section began in June 2015, while construction of the Russian section began in September 2014.

Egypt is obliged to pay for LNG shipments within 15 days of a shipment's unloading. Now the Egyptian authorities are looking to extend that timeframe. Egypt used to get financial support from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and probably will still get it. However, due to lower energy prices, the support now is more limited. Egypt buys six to eight LNG cargoes monthly, each worth $20-$25 million. It is now in arrears of $350 million for that energy, one source estimated.

“TAP is crucial in the diversification of gas sources in Europe through the development of the Southern Corridor from the Republic of Azerbaijan and potentially other countries,” said Carlo Malacarne, Snam’s chief executive officer.

Iran needs $100 billion to rebuild its gas industry and has met with European energy giants, Azizollah Ramezani, International Affairs director at NIGC said in June.

South Pars, divided into 29 development phases, contains 40 trillion cubic metres (tcm) of natural gas. It covers an area of 9,700 square kilometres, of which 3,700 square kilometres are in Iran’s territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. The remaining 6,000 square kilometres are situated in Qatar’s territorial waters. The gas field is estimated to contain about 8% of the world’s reserves, and approximately 18 billion barrels of condensate.

"We’re facing challenges in a number of countries, including Ukraine where we were forced to sell our assets though they were among the best. We’ve sold our assets in Estonia. Today we listed for sale our assets in Lithuania and Latvia where there is rather serious anti-Russia sentiment that’s why the board of directors took the decision to leave those countries," Alekperov said.

Next year Georgia plans to increase the volume of natural gas it imports from Russia by 25.2% against 2015 up to 250.5 mcm. According to the natural gas balance for 2016 approved by the Georgian Energy Ministry, it plans to import 65.9 mcm of commercial gas from Russia. Georgia will receive 184.6 million cub.m. (down from 7.7%) from Russian gas transit to Armenia, for which Georgia gets 10% in volume.

Modi and Putin hailed what they termed a “strategic partnership” at their Kremlin meeting on Thursday and pledged to boost business ties, with the Indian leader signaling progress on defense projects to ensure his country upgrades its weapons capability.