“It’s a serious problem not just for the United States but for the whole world economy. Debt exceeds gross domestic product there.”

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said Monday it revised down the demand for its crude this year, to a level far below its current output, despite higher estimates for global consumption.

Massive oversupply is likely to push oil prices down even further, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Friday, adding that the rebalancing of the market was likely to last well into 2016.

Over the past decade, domestic refinery output of petroleum products has grown significantly while consumption has declined, resulting in a major increase in product exports. Petroleum product exports averaged 4.1 million barrels per day (b/d) in the first four months of the year, an increase of 0.5 million b/d over exports the same time last year. Product imports are also higher than last year, but to a lesser extent, leading to an increase in net petroleum product exports.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC is days away from drilling in the Arctic Ocean—betting it can find enough oil to justify the huge risks that keep almost every other competitor out of those icy waters.

The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, through the Department of Commerce, announced today that the goods and services deficit was $41.9 billion in May, up $1.2 billion from $40.7 billion in April, revised.

Europe could take advantage of global LNG dynamics, but much of the evolution of the European LNG market depends on Gazprom’s decisions in the short to medium term,

“Shale was the biggest event to happen in the past decade. As shale gas production increases every year, LNG import levels have dropped drastically in the United States. In 2014, they imported only 1.6 bcm compared to 200 bcm of their total import capacity. Now, it’s expected to become an LNG exporter by the end of this year at the earliest.”

Pipelines do not determine flows: infrastructure is necessary, but flows depend on market realities. Nord Stream, for instance, expanded Russia’s export capacity by a third in 2012, yet Russia’s exports are still far below their pre-crisis levels. Exports from Algeria have suffered the same fate: in 2011, Algeria inaugurated a new pipeline to Spain, but Algeria’s pipeline exports to Europe were 35 percent lower in 2014 than in 2010. By contrast, Norway is not building new pipelines but its exports are steady and its market share is growing (since demand, the denominator, is falling).

The quest for European energy security this week suffered a pair of setbacks in Britain and Germany, two countries with large reserves of shale oil and gas.

Shale output in the United States will prove resilient to low oil prices likely to be prolonged by the prospect of half a million barrels per day of Iranian crude making its way back to the market.

Booming U.S. shale production helped cut OPEC’s global crude market share to a 12 year low last year.

The European Union would find it difficult to reduce its reliance on natural gas imports from Russia, according to industry experts.

States are attempting to get their hands on long-term gas supply contracts with the Russian natural gas exporter Gazprom and pave the way for a multi-commodity energy supplier business where they can influence end-user prices directly.

“Natural gas is a flexible, it's supply is abundant and diverse, its ranges of use are still expanding, it's supply is abundant and diverse, it's low carbon, clean burning, an ally to renewables such as solar and wind, and it makes economic sense.”