Declines in oil and natural gas extraction and support employment tend to lag declines in crude oil prices. As prices of North Sea Brent crude oil fell from their June 2014 level of $112 per barrel, firms reduced the number of new wells drilled and the associated workforce. The count of drilling rigs in the United States, as measured by Baker Hughes, totaled 857 for the week ending June 19, 54% below the same point a year ago and the lowest level in nearly six years.

U.S. Rig Count is down 2 rigs from last week to 857, with oil rigs down 4 to 631, gas rigs up 2 to 223, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 3. U.S. Rig Count is down 1001 rigs from last year at 1858, with oil rigs down 914, gas rigs down 88, and miscellaneous rigs up 1. The U.S. Offshore rig count is 27, down 2 rigs from last week, and down 32 rigs year over year.

US Arctic oil and gas policies should recognize the industry’s extensive global Far North experience and technology, American Petroleum Institute officials said. “If we don’t use this knowledge, other Arctic nations will move to the forefront of energy development there,” API Upstream Operations Director Erik Milito told reporters at a June 12 briefing.

Deepwater oil projects and complex gas facilities worth around $200 billion have been cancelled or put on hold worldwide in recent months due to the sharp drop in oil prices over the past year, consultancy Ernst and Young said.

Large cuts in the energy industry have made news for the first two quarters of 2015. Halliburton cut 9,000 jobs in six months and reported a loss of $643 million in Q1 of 2015. Schlumberger reported even deeper cuts that tallied around 11,000 in efforts to reduce personnel employment 15 percent when compared to the third quarter of 2014.

"Uncertainty is the rule of the game in this industry," the head of France's Total Patrick Pouyanne said this month. "We are in the long-term business. This is why at Total we are keen to maintain our commitment to Russia."

“Now we are facing a stagnant demand both for oil and gas globally. These two commodities are providing 70% of Russian export and 50% of Russian federal budget revenues, so you can imagine how painful that is.”

Gazprom revived its contract with Italian contractor Saipem (controlled by state-run Eni SpA). The Milan-based company had signed two contracts worth €2.4 bn in total for the construction of an undersea pipeline and support services for construction of a second undersea pipeline, both part of much touted South Stream. The contract terms are now being renegotiated, so as to start construction in time for the 2016 deadline.

The most significant development on the supply side in 2014 was undoubtedly the continuing revolution in US shale. The US recorded the largest increase in oil production in the world, becoming the first country ever to increase average annual production by at least 1 million barrels per day for three consecutive years.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers on Tuesday said it expects Canadian crude output—mostly from Alberta’s oil sands—to reach 4.96 million barrels a day by 2025. That forecast is less than the previous estimate of 5.6 million barrels a day and the 6.0 million barrels a day it had forecast back in 2013.

The collapse in crude prices will pinch Canada’s long-term oil output growth by more than a million barrels a day, highlighting the lasting impact of energy companies’ capital spending cuts, said an industry group in the world’s fifth-largest producer.

The European Union last October reached an outline deal on three 2030 targets to cut emissions by at least 40 percent versus 1990, improve energy savings to at least 27 percent and to increase the share of renewable energy to 27 percent.

Oil & gas output from ultra-deepwater (>1,000m water depth) fields will continue the relentless growth seen in recent years. In the latest World Drilling & Production Forecast, Douglas-Westwood predict combined oil & gas production from such fields will grow 7.7% year-on-year over 2015-2021 from 6.5 mboe/d to 10.2 mboe/d.

Falling oil prices have resulted in much lower gas prices in many parts of the word. As a result, gas demand is enjoying the tailwind of substantial price drops while the upstream sector is suffering amid large capital expenditure cuts.

Russia is still likely to be Europe's biggest supplier of gas. Volume-wise, no one will be able to compete with Russia in Europe, at least for the next two decades.