Oil markets remained volatile Mar. 24 while analysts anticipated a weekly government inventory report showing another climb in US oil and product supplies. US light, sweet crude prices edged up on Mar. 24 to remain under $48/bbl while Brent prices fell modestly to settle at above $55/bbl.

Based on financial statements from selected international oil and natural gas companies, spending on upstream investments was 12% lower in fourth-quarter 2014 compared to the same period in 2013. Upstream spending on exploration and development typically accounts for the bulk of these companies' investment expenditures.

But now, with prices low, the risk of getting busted by Nigeria’s navy now outweighs the get-rich rewards of sabotaging pipelines, stealing oil and smuggling vast quantities of it onto international markets. Indeed, some of these thieves have reverted to plunking fish traps in the waters they helped pollute.

The prospect of a return to $100-a-barrel crude is tempting some to bet against the bearish consensus in the oil market.

ConocoPhillips is among energy companies considering asset sales amid depressed oil prices, as it markets gas-producing properties that account for about 20% of its production in Western Canada. Whiting Petroleum has hired a bank to explore a sale of the company, people familiar with the matter said last week. The company is selling oil and gas processing assets in North Dakota, Bloomberg News reported in February.

The U.S. should immediately begin a push to exploit its enormous trove of oil in the Arctic waters off of Alaska, or risk a renewed reliance on imported oil in the future, an Energy Department advisory council says in a study submitted Friday.

On 26 March, the Solitaire pipe-laying vessel started on the first stage of the Polarled installation project. The 482-kilometre long pipeline will transport gas from the Aasta Hansteen field in the Norwegian Sea to Nyhamna in western Norway.

Oil prices should stabilise in the second half of this year and rise in 2016 and 2017 as consumers respond to a period of much cheaper fuel, a Reuters poll of analysts showed on Monday.

India has bought the first oil for its strategic petroleum reserve (SPR), trade sources said on Monday, marking the start of a round of purchases by the world's fourth-biggest oil consumer to build up emergency stockpiles.

France’s Total completed the sale of its non-operated stake in onshore Nigeria oil mining lease (OML) 29 to Nigeria’s Aiteo Eastern E&P on Monday for $569 million.

U.S. crude oil production (including lease condensate) increased during 2014 by 1.2 million barrels per day (bbl/d) to 8.7 million bbl/d, the largest volume increase since recordkeeping began in 1900. On a percentage basis, output in 2014 increased by 16.2%, the highest growth rate since 1940. Most of the increase during 2014 came from tight oil plays in North Dakota, Texas, and New Mexico where hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling were used to produce oil from shale formations.

China's apparent oil demand in February contracted 1% year over year to 40.7 million metric tons (mt), or an average 10.66 million barrels per day (b/d), according to a just-released Platts analysis of Chinese government data.

Two Qatari companies agreed to pay about $5 billion for a 49% stake in Shandong Dongming Petrochemical Group to help the Chinese business build an LNG receiving terminal and expand into retail gasoline sales.

Based on crude oil market assessments in the Short-Term Energy Outlook, EIA estimates that members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), excluding Iran, will earn about $700 billion in revenue from net oil exports in 2014, a 14% decrease from 2013 earnings and the lowest earnings for the group since 2010.

With Saudi Arabia reluctant to cut production, crude oil prices over the next decade depend greatly on producers’ costs, says a veteran observer of oil markets and the Middle East.

France’s Total is seeking arbitration for a tax dispute with the Ugandan government tied to the company’s acquisition of stakes in three exploration blocks.

Talks between the P5+1 nations and Iran have failed to reach a conclusive outcome by the self-imposed 31st March deadline. The P5+1 nations and Iran have extended talks for a further 24 hours, in the hope that an outline agreement over Iran’s nuclear programme could be reached.

Despite the recent Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Rosneft and Golar LNG, the former’s current gas strategy is narrowly focused on developing domestic reserves and initiating Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) projects in Russia.

Eni, following its participation in the competitive International Bid Round launched by the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, signed two Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) for offshore blocks MD-02 and MD-04.

Exxon Mobil Corporation began production in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico at Hadrian South with facilities tied back to the nearby Lucius project, reducing additional infrastructure requirements.