Is the low oil price really a bad thing for the oil and gas industry? ELN Chief Reporter Priyanka Shrestha finds there are reasons to feel cheerful among experts at IP week.

Russia’s economy could shrink close to 5% this year as a result of plunging oil prices, according to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). That’s a major downward revision from its September forecast of a 0.2% reduction. Oil prices have more than halved since June. Earlier this week, Brent crude was trading just […]

Swingeing job cuts have hit the workforce of global oilfield services firm Schlumberger. It announced yesterday it axed 9,000 jobs last year, around 7% of its original 126,000 workforce. Lowering its headcount would “better align with anticipated activity levels for 2015″, it said. The company said the falling oil price was partly to blame for shrinking its revenue […]

Energy firms such as Centrica, and DONG Energy could feel the sting of falling oil prices with a drop in their revenues, suggests the ratings agency Moody’s. Its new report ‘Global Corporate Finance: Airlines, Packaged Food, Shipping Get Biggest Lift from Oil Price Plunge’, holds a warning for European utilities which don’t just supply energy but […]

British oil giant BP is today (15 January) informing staff at North Sea oil and gas platforms of around 300 job cuts. It is an “inevitable outcome” of tough conditions such as the oil price, said executives. BP expects to chop around 200 staff and 100 contractor roles onshore. It is framing the move against a […]

The fall in global oil prices could benefit some developing countries if supported by stronger global growth, according to the World Bank. Its latest analysis suggests soft oil prices are expected to continue in 2015 and for many oil-importing nations, lower prices contribute to growth and reduce “inflationary, external and fiscal pressures”. However, weak oil […]

The amount of money spent on getting oil and gas out of the UK’s stretch of North Sea could halve if low oil prices continue, suggests new analysis by Wood Mackenzie. Its latest yearly review is positive about investment in the UK in 2014, finding it to be in the top 10 countries for “upstream” […]

[View the story “Osborne warns on fuel prices” on Storify]

Oil and coal prices continue to slide today according to the daily market report. Brent is currently trading at $52.20 (£34.37) per barrel, while coal is down with $64.00 (£42.14) per tonne. Tim Carter, Client Portfolio Manager on the Optimisation Desk at npower said: “Oil and coal prices continue their slide to dampen any rise […]

Oil prices fell again after Saudi Arabia pledged not to stop pumping at any price, according to the daily market report from npower. Saudi Arabia’s oil minister Ali Al-Naimi said in an interview with MEES his nation wouldn’t flinch on producing oil even if it went as low as $20 per barrel. Saudi Arabia is influential in […]