Sector: Oil and Gas

Brent crude slipped on Friday followoing an eight-day rally, as the International Energy Agency cut its oil growth demand forecast for a sixth consecutive month due to a weak global economy.

India, which imports 12 percent of its oil from Iran, has not jumped on the drawdown bandwagon just yet.

Brent crude oil rose on Thursday for the eighth straight day on Thursday, ending at a six-month high, after Greek leaders agreed to austerity measures to secure a second bailout and avoid an unruly default.

U.S. crude inventories erased earlier support for brent crude oil prices, buoyed by hopes of a breakthrough deal to bail out Greece.

China is scouring the world for alternative oil supplies to replace a fall in its imports from Iran, as it seeks to negotiate lower prices from Tehran, and has been drawing heavily on Saudi Arabia.

A House panel passed a bill to fast-track the stalled Keystone XL pipeline, which has become a major issue in the 2012 elections.

Canada will focus on exporting oil and other goods to China and other booming Asian economies even if Washington overturns its decision to block a pipeline that would have sent more Canadian crude to the United States.     

Brent crude rose slightly on Tuesday and U.S. crude jumped more than 1.5 percent, bolstered by an unplanned outage at a Canadian oil sands plant and optimism about an agreement on Greece's debt problems.

As many observers had expected, Russia and China used their veto privileges to block the latest attempt by members of the United Nations Security Council to take concrete measures to stop the bloodshed in Syria.

Brent crude rose on Monday as support from cold weather in Europe, tensions over Iran's nuclear program and turmoil in Syria outweighed pressure from the possibility of a Greek debt default and a resulting curb on oil demand.

Iran has indicated that its threat to cut oil supplies to European states in order to pre-empt a European Union oil embargo that comes into effect in July may be only a symbolic one.

Brent crude prices rose to a near three-month peak on Friday in heavy volume trading after a report showed the U.S. economy in January created jobs at the fastest pace in nine months, fueling hopes of stronger demand in the top petroleum-consuming nation.

There was a scramble for fuel as a record cold snap caught Eastern Europe off guard during an unusually mild winter. Western Europe is on notice as the front appears to be headed west.

The Russia Forum, held in Moscow each February, brings together politicians and business leaders to discuss investing in this vast resource-rich country.

Royal Dutch Shell said it was targeting aggressive growth in the coming years, with the startup of big new projects and higher investments in exploration set to drive a 50 percent rise in cashflow and a 25 percent rise in oil and gas production.