OMV and Gazprom are two of the shareholders in the contentious Nord Stream-2 expansion project. BASF, E.ON, ENGIE, and Shell are the four other stakeholders.

Libya, an Opec member, is producing a fraction of the 1.6m barrels a day it pumped before the downfall of Muammer Gaddafi four years ago. Its oil industry and infrastructure has been shattered by years of conflict that has divided the country.

Norway traditionally vies with Russia to be the EU’s top gas supplier, providing about 30 per cent of import demand. In terms of energy security, EU officials hail Norway as a model of stability compared with the political and commercial risks associated with Russia and Algeria.

The mistaken prognoses highlight the challenges OPEC faces on Friday when the group’s ministers gather in Vienna for a potentially contentious meeting.

Правительственный комитет по делам Евросоюза принял решение о том, что Чехия не присоединится к протестному письму 7 стран Центральной Европы против строительства двух новых веток газопровода "Северный поток".

Saudi Arabia, which has so far resisted any market intervention to prop up oil prices, will propose the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) cut output by 1 million barrels per day (bpd) next year, Energy Intelligence reported.

Александр Новак обратил внимание на существенное увеличение объема экспорта российской нефти в Китай: за 11 месяцев 2015 года рост поставок этого вида сырья в Китай составил 15% по сравнению с аналогичным периодом 2014 года. Всего с января по ноябрь текущего года из России в КНР экспортировано более 24 млн. тонн нефти.

China will add 70-90 million barrels of crude to storage tanks in 2016 to build up its strategic petroleum reserves (SPR).

Sinopec Corp (0386.HK), Asia's largest refiner, and Chinese state trader Zhuhai Zhenrong Corp will together lift around 505,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude from Iran in 2016, the same as this year when they took roughly half of the Islamic Republic's total exports, the sources said.

“I trust Saudi Arabia will act responsibly in line with its reputation," Birol, who worked for OPEC before joining the IEA 20 years ago, told Reuters on the sidelines of a the global climate change summit in Paris.

Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, has fallen 40 per cent over the past year, decimating the budgets of Opec’s weaker members like Angola and Venezuela. The price crash has slowed the growth of US shale, Canada’s tar sands and other sources of high-cost oil but the market remains oversupplied by at least 1m barrels a day.

If current production remains unchanged at 31.5 million barrels a day, markets will still be oversupplied by 700,000 barrels a day in 2016—though that would be less than the glut of 1.8 million a barrel a day OPEC estimates for this year.

“There are no geographical boundaries for profitability,” Nylund said in the interview in Kristiansund on the coast of central Norway. “When you work with solutions, optimizations, adjustments here and there, you see that the cost level comes down.”

“Lower activity in the oil sector is having a damping effect on growth prospects for most sectors, while the level of activity is expected to be sustained by rising growth in public investment,” the central bank said in the report.

U.S. Rig Count is down 7 rigs from last week to 737, with oil rigs down 10 to 545, and gas rigs up 3 to 192.

Having reviewed the oil market outlook for 2015, and the projections for 2016, the Conference observed that global economic growth is currently at 3.1% in 2015 and is forecast to expand by 3.4% next year. In terms of supply and demand, it was noted that non-OPEC supply is expected to contract in 2016, while global demand is anticipated to expand again by 1.3 mb/d.

The ability of the US with its newly found export capacity mostly based on shale gas development provides gas into the global market, he explained, for which the European market can benefit as long as the prices in Europe are attractive to a US producer.

“We're interested in seeing more interconnected markets in Europe. We obviously can deliver very flexibly to any terminal; we're not bound into delivering to just one location, as you would be with a pipeline, and what we're really interested in doing is securing new markets, developing integrated projects possibly involving power plants as well, or floating re-gas infrastructure with a power plant behind it, a business model we've operated in Chile; we're looking at doing something similar in Croatia,”

Low oil prices have hurt manufacturers that supply and service the sector

The falling oil and gasoline prices that for months have coincided with strong U.S. hiring have helped most Americans. But they’ve come at a painful cost for workers in the energy and mining sector: 122,300 lost jobs in the past year. Overall, U.S. employers added a robust 211,000 jobs and the unemployment rate held steady at a low 5 percent.