OPEC revenue has fallen in step with the steep decline in crude oil prices. The monthly average Brent spot price dropped from $112 per barrel in June 2014 to $38/b in December 2015. OPEC revenue is expected to fall further in 2016 to $341 billion before rising to $427 billion in 2017.

Natural gas production worldwide is projected to increase from 342 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2015 to 554 Bcf/d by 2040.

Australia’s LNG exports rose by 2% last month following a worldwide rise in demand for the product.

Saudi Arabia didn’t agree to limits on its production back in April because Iran, its regional rival, refused to join in. Several OPEC members want to revive the idea because Iran has regained much of the energy-industry might it lost during the years of Western sanctions.

“Higher oil demand is expected in the 3rd and 4th Quarters”, HE Dr Mohammed Bin Saleh Al-Sada, Qatar’s Minister of Energy and Industry and current OPEC President said, expressing positive sentiments in a brief released from OPEC.

Employment in oil and natural gas production reached a high of 538,000 jobs in October 2014. Since then, oil and natural gas production employment declined 26%, a loss of more than 142,000 jobs through May 2016, based on the latest jobs data available. The total decrease in production jobs is nearly three times the 51,000 jobs lost over a 13-month period during the 2008–09 recession.

Debt levels are currently rising at an annual rate of 11.5 percent, more than double the 5.1 percent witnessed between 2009 and 2014.

However, in conjunction with both lower oil prices and international sanctions, Russia has recently experienced five consecutive quarters of decline in GDP, representing that country's deepest economic downturn since 2008-09.

Progress will be slow. The crude glut will take a long time to dissipate, meaning only gradual price gains, said Michael Hsueh, a strategist at Deutsche Bank AG. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, will average $49.50 in the fourth quarter before breaking decisively above $50 next year, the analysts say.

State-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co. said Sunday it will sell cargoes of Arab Light in September at $1.10 a barrel below Asia’s regional benchmark. That is a pricing cut of $1.30 from August, the biggest drop since November, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The company was expected to lower the pricing by $1 a barrel, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of eight refiners and traders.

Oil consumption growth in the current fiscal year will likely exceed 10.9% of the previous year, if the current consumption trend continues, an oil ministry arm has said. A 7.8% jump in the consumption of petroleum products in the country in April-June, compared to 5.2% in the year-ago period.

The $10bn Tapi project is aimed to carry 33bn m³/yr of gas to the participant countries by 2021. Ashgabat has an 85% stake in the challenging project, which equates to one third of the country's total yearly budget.

Low oil prices are expected to have a negative effect on the US LNG export industry. LNG export markets are tied to oil indexing. With crude oil prices decreasing by 50% over the past year and a half, the US Henry Hub market is losing its price advantage. This scenario not only minimizes projected LNG export revenues, but it also makes financing capital-intensive LNG facilities more difficult.

Brent crude oil prices averaged at the lowest level since 2004, significantly reducing profits and cash flow for energy companies.

Higher and more stable crude oil prices are contributing to increased drilling in the United States, which may slow the pace of production declines. Benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil prices averaged $46.59 per barrel (b) over the last three weeks, a 40% increase over the average price in the first quarter.