“Now we are facing a stagnant demand both for oil and gas globally. These two commodities are providing 70% of Russian export and 50% of Russian federal budget revenues, so you can imagine how painful that is.”

Europe’s biggest oil groups are extending business deals with their Russian energy partners despite this month’s EU vote to continue imposing sanctions, highlighting how western companies are learning to live with the restrictions placed on Moscow.

Gazprom revived its contract with Italian contractor Saipem (controlled by state-run Eni SpA). The Milan-based company had signed two contracts worth €2.4 bn in total for the construction of an undersea pipeline and support services for construction of a second undersea pipeline, both part of much touted South Stream. The contract terms are now being renegotiated, so as to start construction in time for the 2016 deadline.

China’s ambassador to the Philippines has suggested that the two countries sit down for talks on the most squeamish territorial dispute in Asia. The question of who controls the fishery-rich, 3.5 million-square-kilometer South China Sea, also full of oil and natural gas as well as major world shipping lanes, could proceed from military preparations to a calm negotiating room. The two governments – both unusually aggressive in asserting rival claims to the sea — might be able to work something out. The Philippines is talking now to Taiwan to agree on law enforcement in their own overlapping waters.

U.S. Rig Count is down 9 rigs from last week to 859, with oil rigs down 7 to 635, gas rigs down 1 to 221, and miscellaneous rigs down 1 to 3. U.S. Rig Count is down 995 rigs from last year at 1854, with oil rigs down 907, gas rigs down 89, and miscellaneous rigs up 1. The U.S. Offshore rig count is 29, up 2 rigs from last week, and down 30 rigs year over year.

According to Statistics Norway, total investments in oil and gas activity in 2016 should be NOK 184.9 billion, which is 1.4% higher than the corresponding estimate for 2015.

Iran needs $100 billion to rebuild its gas industry and has met with European energy giants as an end to decades of international sanctions looms, according to the state-run company in charge of discussions.

U.S crude production will dip by as many as 300,000 barrels per day until early 2016 before ramping up again, according to the Energy Information Administration’s latest short-term energy outlook.

A consortium led by Norway’s Statoil discovered a gas pay zone at wildcat well 6706/11-2 in the Gymir prospect in the Norwegian Sea. The well was drilled about 12 miles west of the Aasta Hansteen field to prove petroleum in Upper Cretaceous reservoir rocks, in the Nise formation.

The most significant development on the supply side in 2014 was undoubtedly the continuing revolution in US shale. The US recorded the largest increase in oil production in the world, becoming the first country ever to increase average annual production by at least 1 million barrels per day for three consecutive years.

More than $100bn of investment has been deferred or scrapped in response to the near-50 per cent plunge in crude over the past year.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers on Tuesday said it expects Canadian crude output—mostly from Alberta’s oil sands—to reach 4.96 million barrels a day by 2025. That forecast is less than the previous estimate of 5.6 million barrels a day and the 6.0 million barrels a day it had forecast back in 2013.

The collapse in crude prices will pinch Canada’s long-term oil output growth by more than a million barrels a day, highlighting the lasting impact of energy companies’ capital spending cuts, said an industry group in the world’s fifth-largest producer.

China had surpassed the United States in oil imports. It’s true that overall, China’s oil composition growth has slowed, however, their new title does point to the fact that China will consume significant amounts of crude for years to come.

Europe may face deficit of gas imports of a total of 50 bln cubic meters in 2025, Gazprom Deputy Chairman Alexander Medvedev said Monday.