U.S. Rig Count is down 10 rigs from last week to 757, with oil rigs down 10 to 564, and gas rigs unchanged at 193.

Total petroleum deliveries (a measure of demand) fell slightly in October by 0.3 percent from year ago levels, according to API’s Monthly Statistical Report for October 2015. Production of all four major products–gasoline, distillate, jet fuel and residual fuels was higher than deliveries for those products, so refined products were exported.

For China, the opportunity to re-negotiate existing liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply contracts with Shell, which combined with BG would supply around 30 percent of its imports by 2017, comes at an ideal time because the world's top energy consumer faces a large surfeit over the next five years.

“Capital markets are effectively closed to the oil and gas industry” in Africa, Tony Hayward, former head of BP Plc and now chairman of Genel Energy Plc, said at a conference in Cape Town last month. “A decade of exploration, with billions of dollars invested and only limited commercial success.”

Canadian producers are struggling to cut the cost of extracting bitumen from the oil sands, and their other wells are failing to match the efficiency gains of U.S. rivals, a Bloomberg Intelligence analysis shows. While output keeps rising in the Permian Basin, the largest U.S. shale play, companies are slowing output from wells in Alberta and have shelved 18 oil- sands projects during the downturn, according to ARC Financial Corp.

CAODC announces its 2016 Drilling Forecast • Projected 2016 wells drilled: 4,728—a decrease of 58% from 2014 (11,226) • Projected operating days: 56,260—a decrease of 57% from 2014 (131,021) • Rig fleet expected to contract by 62 (758 drilling rigs to 696 drilling rigs) • 57% decrease in employment from 2014 levels (-28,485 jobs)

Australia is significantly adding to global liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply capacity. Two new facilities started LNG exports within the last 12 months, and 5 more projects are under construction, scheduled to come online by 2018. With this growth, Australia is expected to overtake Qatar and Malaysia to become the world's largest LNG exporter, with 11.4 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of liquefaction capacity by 2019.

Urals Energy PCL (AIM:UEN), the independent exploration and production company with operations in Russia, is pleased to announce the acquisition of the entire issued share capital of two private Russian companies, RK-Oil Limited (“RK”) and BVN Oil Limited (“BVN”), from Mr Ilya Glebov. These companies were formed in 2014 in order to participate in public auctions for oil exploration and production licenses in Russia’s Komi region. Following these auctions both RK and BVN hold licenses in the Komi region.

The Qatar Investment Authority has sold its shares in Shell and BG for $1.5bn, according to Qatar’s Al Sharq Media.

Algeria and Libya may reduce deliveries to Europe in the next two to three years because of political instability, lack of investment and contract renegotiations, according to Carlo Malacarne, CEO of Italy’s Snam, Europe’s biggest gas transmission operator by pipeline length and storage capacity. Its Italian network includes entry points for gas arriving from North Africa and Russia.

Глава Минэнерго России заверил, что несмотря на продвижение по строительству второй ветки газопровода «Северный поток», проект «Турецкий поток» по-прежнему актуален. «Есть Турция сама по себе как потребитель, и есть потребности юго-восточной Европы, Италии, которые также самодостаточны, под них можно строить инфраструктуру», - сказал Александр Новак.

"In 2016, geopolitical challenges will not go away. We have to keep pushing for diversification of energy sources," Sefcovic said, reiterating that the Commission would scrutinize whether the Nord Stream plan complied with EU rules.

The financing problems for the project stems from U.S.-led sanctions against Russia’s oil and natural gas sector over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2014. Also, in June the EU extended economic sanctions on Russia until January 3, in a move that media said at the time was “keeping up pressure on Moscow to help resolve the Ukraine conflict.”

Azerbaijan’s commercial gas production increased by 6.2 percent in 10 month of 2015, compared to the same period in last year, the State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan reported on November 17.

Statoil ASA announced that it will vacate leases it holds in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska and close its office in Anchorage because they are no longer competitive. Its Nov. 17 action came after Shell Offshore Co. made a similar move with its Alaska federal offshore leases for the same reason.