Russia's largest private gas company, Novatek, announced a large natural gas find offshore the western Siberian Yamal peninsula.

The company, which operates the Yamal LNG project, said the newly discovered North-Obskoye field holds more than 320 billion cu m in reserves and over 900 billion cu m in resources.

The find will provide a boost for Novatek's LNG plans: it has already announced a second

Russia and Saudi Arabia agreed privately to start increasing production when prices become too heated and they told Washington about it.

That's according to four people who Reuters quoted but who refused to be named,m unsurprisingly given the nature of the information, which effectively means Russia and Saudi Arabia tell the oil market where to go together.

Brent is now trading above $85 a barrel

The crude oil market is still "fragile" because of geopolitical factors, Russia's Energy Minister Alexander Novak said, suggesting prices could go higher when US sanctions against Iran enter into effect.

Brent has this week climbed closer to $80 a barrel on the back of hurricane activity in the Gulf of Mexico and, more importantly, signs that Washington was unwilling to grant waivers to Iran oil

Crude oil prices fell after Russia's Energy Ministry said national oil production rose by 150,000 bpd in July.

That's half of the 300,000-bpd cut Russia agreed to make as part of its agreement with OPEC from 2016. Now, production is coming back faster than expected and prices are falling.

A contributing factor for the price decline was an announcement that Saudi Aramco would reduce prices for its

Rising crude oil production in the United States and Russia pressured oil prices at the start of the week with Brent trading at $76.37 a barrel at around midnight GMT, down by a very modest 0.1%.

West Texas Intermediate was also down slightly, by 0.2% to $65.62 a barrel on the latest rig count from Baker Hughes that revealed the number of active drilling rigs in the US had hit the highest since

The upcoming June 22 OPEC+ meeting could be one of the hardest for the cartel since at least 2011, Commerzbank's head of commodities Eugen Weinberg told CNBC.

Other experts share the view: there are internal disagreements among OPEC members that could make it difficult for the participants in the meeting to reach a unanimous decision on how they will proceed with the production cut deal. Any

Rising US crude oil production and plans by Russia and Saudi Arabia to begin easing their self-imposed production cuts rattled oil prices as traders began preparing for the official OPEC-Russia decision next month.

At $75.87 a barrel, Brent is significantly down from a peak of over $80 reached last week and it doesn't have much going for it, except a statement from OEPC that OECD crude oil

Brent crude slid down to $75.34 a barrel and WTI traded at $66.31 in mid-morning Asian trade today, extending a losing streak that began last week after Russia and Saudi Arabia said they might bring back online 1 million bpd in production.

Brent is down 6.4% from its peak of above $80 hit earlier this month and WTI has shed almost 9%. China's Shanghai crude futures were down 4.5% to 459 yuan.

Saudi

Crude oil slid further down from four-year highs no Friday after Russia suggested it may start gradually easing the production cuts it agreed to join at the end of 2016.

At $78.69 a barrel, Brent was almost 2 dollars below the high it hit last week on geopolitical tensions and dropping Venezuelan production.

Russia is currently the world's largest oil producer, with the United States the number-two

OPEC reported production figures exceeding most of the members' quotas under the November 2016 production cut agreement, led by Venezuela.

The situation with oil production in Venezuela is not the result of a willing choice to cut but nevertheless the troubled South American nation is driving OPEC's overall compliance much higher, supporting prices.

Non-OPEC partners in the deal also gave exemplary

Crude oil prices felt the pressure of an 11-month high in Russian oil production reported for March, despite a drop in US active rigs.

Russia's Energy Ministry reported an average daily of 10.97 million barrels of crude for March, up from 10.95 million bpd in the previous month. This weighed on prices not least because of the excessive volatility characteristic of the market.

This volatility, in

Brent and WTI both fell today on worry that US crude oil production will continue to grow unrestrained.

At $64.80 a barrel, Brent is now far from the highs it hit early this year on renewed optimism after OPEC and Russia extended their production cut deal till the end of 2018.

After it topped 10 million barrels daily in November last year, now US production of crude is seen to pass the 11-million-

Pressured by U.S. and EU sanctions against Russia's energy industry, Exxon has decided to withdraw from all joint projects with Rosneft.

The move will result in a loss of $200 million, Exxon said in a securities filing. The decision, it added, was made last year but the withdrawal process will begin this year.

This is a serious blow to the supermajor, which, like most of the industry, is seeking

OPEC and Russia seem to have outdone themselves with the oil production cuts, helped by stronger demand, which has become a problem.

The higher the price of oil, the more US producers will pump and this will affect not just the future of prices but also market share.

According to some OPEC officials, such as the energy ministers of the UAE and Kuwait, all is going well and there is no need to

The US Energy Information Administration said it believed local crude oil production could exceed what Russia and Saudi Arabia produce at the moment by 2019.

The authority sees crude oil output hitting 10.8 million barrels daily this year, to hit 11 million barrels daily in 2019. The 2018 average is seen at 10.3 million barrels daily. This will be the highest daily production rate in the US ever.

China is struggling with major natural gas shortages right as winter heating season is at its peak.

The shortage began to be felt in November as supplies from Central Asian producers slipped down. These recovered by december but highlighted the fact that China is becoming increasingly dependent on external sources of gas as it shifts from coal to the cleaner fuel.

Currently, China imports 40% of

Russia recorded its highest-ever natural gas production in 2017, at almost 700 billion cu m and it could rise further as LNG projects come online.

The 2017 total output was a 7.9% increase on 2016 and a 2.9% rise on the previous record, hit in 2011. Now, Russia is on track with plans to overtake the United States as the world's top gas producer.

The US pumped 626 billion cu m of gas in January-

The Chinese leg of the Power of Siberia natural gas pipeline should be done by 2020, according to the Chinese partner in charge of the project, CNPC.

The 38-billion-cu-m piece of infrastructure will open up more of the Chinese market to Gazprom -- a lucrative market where demand for gas is rising, and it's rising fast. By 2040, demand will exceed domestic supply by 43%: the former will hit 600

OPEC, Russia and their partners in the oil production cut deal agreed to extend it until the end of next year in a move that was so widely expected it didn't have any significant effect on oil prices.

There were doubts if Russia will support the cut, as according to some analysts it would fare better at lower oil prices, but in the end of the day Moscow decided to spare us a surprise price drop.

Oil prices fell today in Asian trade as uncertainty about the outcome of the OPEC/non-OPEC meeting on Thursday deepen and TransCanada said it will restart the Keystone pipeline today.

Brent fell by $0.11 from yesterday's close to $63.73 a barrel and WTI shed $0.24 to $57.87 a barrel, Reuters reports. Last Friday, WTI touched a high of $59.05 on the Keystone outage.

Russia is the biggest wild card

OPEC and Russia's deal to cut production of crude oil to stabilize prices could get another extension, at least till the end of 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

Speaking at an investment forum in Moscow yesterday, Putin said that the deal has been beneficial for the global economy so far and an extension would make sense.

This is the longest extension suggested so far, after talk about

The crude oil production cut deal that OPEC Russia and ten other producers signed late last year could be extended beyond March 2018.

That's what Russian deputy PM Arkady Dvorkovich told Bloomberg, adding, however, that it is still too early for such decisions.

Dvorkovich said the deal is clearly working, helping oil prices to stabilize, so the most logical move to make come march 2018 would be to

Russia will allocate $2.75 billion for the development of the Arctic over the next eight years, Pm Dmitry Medvedev said.

The Arctic is rich in oil and gas and now that climate change is melting the ice, exploration has become viable in that region. Russia is one of seven countries with Arctic territory and has been working to develop infrastructure there for years.

Now, Medvedev said, part of the

Researchers from a Russian university have developed an oil recovery method that can boost well productivity as much as six times.

The method, Russian media report, involves prompting a chemical reaction in oil-bearing strata, which facilitates the release of the hydrocarbons. Besides effective, the reports say, the technology is also cheap as the main ingredient that starts the chemical reaction

Nigeria has agreed to stop ramping up its oil output once it reaches a daily rate of 1.8 million bpd and Saudi Arabia has promised to cap daily exports at 6.6 million barrels.

That’s the outtake from yesterday’s energy ministers’ meeting in St. Petersburg, which sent Brent and West Texas Intermediate higher on hopes a market rebalancing might be on the way.

Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak has called on Libya and Nigeria to join the crude oil production cut the world’s top producer agreed with OPEC late last year.

The two countries were exempted from the cut because of output troubles unrelated to the 2014 price crash. At the moment, both are expanding this output at a fast pace, undermining the cartel’s efforts to push oil prices up to

There could be a little bit of hope for higher oil prices as the Energy Information Administration yesterday reported a substantial draw in US crude oil inventories, of over 2 million barrels for the week to June 16.

Although some joy--if any--from this news was in order, it didn’t last long as the EIA also reported an increase in crude oil production during last week. The increase was not all

After the top oil men of Russia and Saudi Arabia said they have agreed to extend the oil production cut until the end of March 2018, international prices were quick to react.

Both Brent crude and WTI added more than 3% after the joint announcement, with Brent reaching $52.52 a barrel and the US benchmark went up to $49.66 a barrel. Later on Monday both lost some of their gains but that was more of

Crude oil posted losses for the last six sessions thanks to a reversal of sentiment among traders.

Despite continuing talks about an extension to the OPEC-non-OPEC deal that was supposed to take care of the excess supply, traders are for the moment losing hope and this is being reflected in prices.

WTI is still below $50 a barrel, at $49.44, posting a slight increase in midday Asian trade today,

Crude oil prices rose to highs last seen in December, after OPEC struck its already historical deal to curb global production in a bid to prop up prices.

Brent reached $56.23 a barrel and WTI hit $53.54, after reports emerged that Saudi Arabia might be after all on board with a cut extension beyond the June 30th deadline.

So far, several OPEC members, including Angola and Kuwait, have expressed

After making some gains on positive signals from OPEC, oil prices fell in Asian trade today after production figures released by Russia showed daily output in February was unchanged from January.

At 11.11 million bpd, Russia’s crude output was higher than most expected, given its commitment to shave off 300,000 bpd to help OPEC support prices. In January, the Energy Ministry reported a 100,000-

The National Iranian Gas Company’s managing director said yesterday the company is interested in developing a pipeline project worth $2.5 billion with Russia.

The pipeline, 9th Iran Gas Trunkline, or IGAT-9, will be 1,900 km long, stretching from southern Iran to the northwest, and will carry 110 million cu m of gas from the South Pars offshore field, developed by Total, through 17 compressor

Some OPEC members are cutting more of their out production than they agreed in Vienna last November, countering rising doubts about the deal’s success.

According to statements from the oil ministers of Saudi Arabia, Russia, Kuwait, and Algeria, the three OPEC members have curbed their output by more than they said they would, while Russia has reached its first milestone, a 100,000-bpd cut

As it becomes abundantly clear that OPEC’s production cut will not be enough to prop up prices soon enough and strongly enough, the cartel has reached out to non-OPEC producers to join the cutting efforts.

Now that Russia has agreed to reduce its daily output by 300,000 barrels, another 300,000 bpd must be cut elsewhere outside OPEC to make the plan work.

Crude oil benchmarks started the week with a decline as scepticism about the effectiveness of the OPEC production cut agreed last week grew.

Brent crude was trading at $53.89 a barrel at 1:30 AM GMT, down 1% from Friday’s close. West Texas Intermediate was at $51.49, also down 1% from Friday.

The governor of Russia’s central bank, Elvira Nabiullina, said yesterday she anticipated average crude oil prices at $40 for the next three years.

This forecast -- pretty gloomy for many in the international oil industry -- is the base scenario for the period. In tune with it, Russia is lowering the export duties for crude oil and fuels. Both the scenario and the duty changes could be seen as a

Brent crude shot up to $53.14 yesterday and WTI reached $51.22, after Russian President Vladimir Putin said the country is ready to join OPEC plans to cap or reduce production to rebalance the market.

Putin was speaking at the World Energy Congress in Istanbul and Saudi Oil Minister Khalid al-Falih said that with Russia’s support for the agreement, we could see crude prices reach $60 before the

The Japanese government is considering a broad co-operation with Russia in the energy sector, which could involve an investment of up to $10 billion in state oil giant Rosneft.

The investment will be allocated for the acquisition of a 10% stake in Rosneft via state-supported company Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp.

Another facet of the co-operation will involve joint exploration for oil

The Russian Economy Ministry said in a statement that crude oil will continue to trade at between $45 and $50 a barrel over the next two years.

The recent rally, the ministry said, is temporary and is a result of speculative trends rather than a sustainable change in fundamentals. The fundamentals, according to the ministry, as quoted by Sputnik, are moving in the direction suggested in “basic

India is hunting for oil deals in its vicinity, to satisfy its growing hunger for fuel, with targets focused in Iran and Russia.

Bloomberg reports that Indian companies are currently mulling over a stake buy in none other than Rosneft, Russia’s top oil company and one of the ten biggest in the world. Recently, India’s largest energy firm Oil and Natural Gas Corp. bought 15% in the Vankor field

Russia shipped 5.5 million barrels of crude abroad in the first six month of this year, up 4.9% on 2015 and there are no signs for a reversal of this trend.

Production also continued rising, to 10.84 million barrels daily in June. According to data from the Russian Energy Ministry cited by Bloomberg, Russia’s crude production rose every month since July 2014, when the price crisis started.

The two top oil producers in the world, Russia and Saudi Arabia agreed to freeze their daily output at current levels.

Although these levels are record-high, the news is still good in that the agreement means the two countries will stop increasing output, at least for a while. Both are currently pumping over 10 million barrels a day. At their meeting in Qatar, the energy ministers of the two

Ali al-Naimi and Alexander Novak are to meet today in Qatar to discuss measures to deal with the overwhelming global oversupply of crude.

According to sources from OPEC cited by the Wall Street Journal, the front-running idea is to freeze production, that is, to keep it at current levels without increasing it any further as both OPEC and Russia have been doing over the last couple of years.

The

Russia’s energy minister Alexander Novak yesterday caused a sharp jump in oil prices, telling media that OPEC has suggested a global output cut of 5% to prop up oil prices.

Reuters reports that it remained unclear whether Novak was referring to a suggestion made by two of the most troubled OPEC members, Venezuela and Algeria, or it was a new one. The news source quoted a representative of a Gulf

Russian oil companies are planning to export 6.4% less crude this year, according to data from Rosneft, the country’s oil transport giant cited by the Telegraph.

Following Turkey’s shooting down of a Russian plane yesterday, crude oil prices jumped to their highest in two months, helped up by a decline in gasoline supplies in the US.

Brent crude ended trade up $1.29 to $46.12 a barrel, touching an intraday high of $46.50. West Texas Intermediate gained $1.12 to $42.87 a barrel.