Energy crisis

Greece's sole oil producer, Energean Oil & Gas, has stepped up daily production by about 30 percent since early January, it said on Wednesday, as the debt-ridden country seeks to tap into its limited oil reserves.

Oil prices rose on April 19 as an oil workers' strike in Kuwait nearly halved crude production from the OPEC member, overshadowing bearish sentiment following the failure by oil producers to agree to freeze output levels on April 17. 

Oil markets will begin to rebalance in 2017 thanks to falling U.S. production but that decline will prove short-lived as efficiency gains will push U.S. output to new records by the beginning of the next decade, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Feb. 22.

Hellenic Petroleum, Greece’s largest refinery, has struck a deal to buy oil from the National Iranian Oil Company in the first sale of Iranian crude oil to a European country since trade sanctions were lifted. The long-term agreement announced on Friday said that deliveries are to begin immediately.

Russia's oil production may drop if crude falls below $40 a barrel, Deputy Energy Minister Alexei Teksler said on Sept. 18, the first time Russia, one of the world's biggest producers, has acknowledged low prices could hit output.

A recent sector report by Thomson Reuters reveals that vessel tracking data for July 2015 showed that Greece’s imports of crude oil rose by a whopping 84 percent, month-on-month, with fears over Grexit during the tumultuous month given as the primary reason.

Oil prices sank on Sept. 11 after U.S. bank Goldman Sachs slashed its forecasts for crude futures, while the International Energy Agency warned of a major cut to non-OPEC output.

Brent North Sea crude for delivery in October shed $1.05 to stand at $47.98 a barrel around midday in London.

World oil demand will rise much more than expected this year, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on June 11, in the latest sign that the collapse in oil prices is helping to boost fuel use.

Austrian energy group OMV said on May 18 it was unlikely to resume production in war-torn Libya or Yemen before winter, after headline profit fell by half as low oil prices weighed on its upstream business.

Oil prices might have stabilized only temporarily because the global oil glut is worsening and U.S. production shows no sign of slowing, the International Energy Agency said on March 13.

The West's energy watchdog said the United States may soon run out of spare capacity to store crude, which would put additional downward pressure on prices.