Goldman Sachs said the market had ended almost two years of oversupply and flipped to a deficit.

World oil demand in 2015 grew by around 1.54 mb/d, unchanged from last month’s report. Total oil consumption averaged 92.98 mb/d. In 2016, world oil demand is projected to rise by 1.20 mb/d to reach 94.18 mb/d, unchanged from last month’s projections, despite upward revisions to Other Asia, which were counterbalanced by downward revisions to Latin America and China.

Russia’s economy is closer to growth than at any time since it slid into recession and central bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina is focusing on what she says are “positive signals.”

“Markets fluctuate, but we know that science does not. You have to be patient. The cycle from discovery to deployment can take decades.”

Without any of those reforms, Saudi Arabia’s financial troubles would continue to intensify.

Changes to the data in this month’s confirm the direction of travel of the oil market towards balance. The net result of our changes to demand and supply data is that we expect to see global oil stocks increase by 1.3 million b/d in the first half of 2016 followed by a dramatic reduction in the second half of 2016 to 200,000 b/d.

The United States is deeply concerned about the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline project as a threat to national security, a senior U.S. energy envoy said on Friday, after the issue was raised at talks in Washington this week.

Brent crude oil prices are forecast to average $41/b in 2016 and $51/b in 2017.

Rising incomes in China, India, and other emerging Asia economies are a key driver of the global energy outlook. Developing Asia accounts for more than half of the projected increase in global energy use through 2040. This increase will have a profound effect on the development of world energy markets. Clean energy technologies play an important role in the outlook, with renewables expected to be the fastest-growing energy source.

Azerbaijan can boost annual gas exports to 50bn m3 by 2050, deputy energy minister Natig Abbasov said recently.

Policymakers always worry about Russia having too much market share of European gas, but from my point of view Russia needs Europe a lot more than Europe needs Russia. The reason for that is that gas has been losing market share in Russia and in Ukraine. Russia’s projects to straddle across to Asia are not progressing so well and also its LNG projects are not progressing quickly. So really the only game in town is Europe, particularly from a price perspective. However, that means that their dependency on Europe is growing so policymakers do not need to worry about Russia.

If this price drop does happen, then Norway will be caught in the crossfire, as its production is more expensive than Gazprom's. Further, Gazprom has already developed the giant Bovanenkovo field in the Yamal Peninsula, where output has been curtailed as export markets and Gazprom's own domestic demand have have not required the additional gas. This means it is in a position to bring more cheap gas to market at little additional cost beyond transport. For Norway, however, adding more production capacity entails more capital expenditure.

The rout in crude prices is snowballing into one of the biggest avalanches in the history of corporate America, with 59 oil and gas companies now bankrupt after this week's filings for creditor protection by Midstates Petroleum MPOY.PK and Ultra Petroleum UPL.NL.

American LNG will be part of the approach towards diversification of sources of gas in Europe, in contrast to projects like Nord Stream 2 or the revived South Stream, which she said are not real sources of diversification.

Gazprom reported the average production cost of natural gas in 2015 at ₽1643 per 1000 cubic meters (mcm) or $27.09/mcm or $0.84/MMBtu. The corresponding numbers for 2014 are ₽1470/mcm, $38.73/mcm and $1.21/MMBtu. The cost in US dollars is affected by the devaluation of Russian ruble. The average US dollar rate in 2015 was ₽60.66 compared with ₽37.97 in 2014.