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Sub-salt discoveries, oil sands and a revamping of the regulatory framework will dominate most discussions of the petroleum sector in the Republic of Congo in 2014. As the country struggles with a steady decline in production and a lag of new replacement projects in the near term, the government is sending strong signals that it realises measures have to be taken to reverse the trend by modernising the regulatory system, cooperating with its neighbour Angola and standing firm on its commitment to what could be the first bitumen oil sands development on the African continent. While the prospects for a spike in production are quite limited in the 2014-2015 window, the extension of the Moho-Bilando deepwater field will bring new production on-stream in two phases in 2015 and 2016. We are factoring this new crude into the country's production outlook for 2016-2017. It will help make up for premature depletion of the Murphy Oil-led Azurite offshore field. The company announced in 2013 that it could release the FPSO before the contract expires in 2016. A late 2013 crude discovery by CNOOC and its partner ORYX on the Haute Mer offshore block was scheduled to undergo testing in early 2014 as part of a multi-well drilling and testing programme, according to ORYX, the junior partner.

In the race for attention and upstream investment interest, Hungary is only marginally in the race in central Europe. Despite many desirable elements; a clean regulatory process, proximity to hundreds of millions of customers, a well run downstream sector and pipelines to deliver goods, try as it might, Hungary has so far failed to identify source rock in sufficient quantity and quality to hold out hope of the elephant size discovery that lures the super majors and their large exploration budgets. That said, there are some smaller independents that remain committed and convinced that the absence of competition from those super majors clears the field for them.

The Bulgarian business environment remains challenging, suffering from high levels of corruption and inefficiency, while a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing remains in place. Bulgaria's oil sector is uninspiring with limited new activity and a continued decline in domestic production. Upside in Bulgaria's oil and gas sector comes from the US$1.2bn investment to upgrade the Neftochim refinery which will add a 50,000 barrel per day vacuum distillation unit, and from the natural gas sector which is looking increasingly positive. New gas projects being brought online both on and offshore will add to domestic output, as well as growing prospects from offshore seismic projects.

With a moratorium on shale gas exploration, the Czech Republic will remain highly dependent on imported fuel, as conventional hydrocarbons potential is limited. Demand trends are not strong, but refinery disruptions and the closure of the Pardubice refinery show that the domestic fuels market is in a precarious state of balance. This, in turn, has prompted the government to investigate ownership options for the national refining segment, with Shell having sold its 16.33% stake in Ceska Rafinerska to Unipetrol in January 2014.

Although Italy is thought to retain moderate untapped hydrocarbons potential, bureaucratic and regulatory challenges are set to hamper previously outlined goals to reduce the country's hefty import burden. Despite the start of production from the Tempa Rosa field from 2017, we see only limited upside risk to our production forecast from current exploration and production efforts. While we expect increased reliance on liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports as new infrastructure comes online, we are not yet assuming all planned terminals will go ahead, given delays to other plans. We also see risks that Italy's sizable downstream sector will see further downsizing as the sector struggles under the pressure of persistently low margins.

Euromonitor International's Industrial reports provide a 360 degree view of an industry. The Industrial market report offers a comprehensive guide to the size and shape of the Extraction of Crude Petroleum and Natural Gas market at a national level. It provides the latest retail sales data, allowing you to identify the sectors driving growth. It identifies the leading companies, the leading brands and offers strategic analysis of key factors influencing the market - be they new product developments, packaging innovations, economic/lifestyle influences, distribution or pricing issues. Forecasts illustrate how the market is set to change.

Green Auto Lube, a soon to be opened responsible oil change companies in the United States, offers a protective oil change in Spokane, WA. The oil change this company will offer comprises two options;Re-Refined Oil Change and Bio-Based Oil Change.

Carbon Cycle Crush is offering expeller-pressed Canola meal to help local farmers maintain a healthy line of cattle. With the help of itsexpeller-pressed crushing facilities, the company offers Canola meal that is rich in Omega-3 and also contains high levels of other needed nutrients.

Euromonitor International's Industrial reports provide a 360 degree view of an industry. The Industrial market report offers a comprehensive guide to the size and shape of the Manufacture and Distribution of Gas market at a national level. It provides the latest retail sales data, allowing you to identify the sectors driving growth. It identifies the leading companies, the leading brands and offers strategic analysis of key factors influencing the market - be they new product developments, packaging innovations, economic/lifestyle influences, distribution or pricing issues. Forecasts illustrate how the market is set to change.

Since the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster and the 2012 presidential elections, French dependence on nuclear energy has been under the spotlight and has been set to be diluted in favour of renewables. While the country's current energy policy is unclear at the moment, President Francois Hollande's pledge to reduce the country's reliance on nuclear energy from 75% to 50% by 2025 could very well make room for greater gas-fired power generation in the coming years. Indeed, should a nuclear reduction occur (even in a smaller amount than targeted), the compensation for lost capacity would see an increase in renewable energy, gas and/or coal fired power generation. Given France's minimal domestic gas production and that shale gas exploration and production in unlikely within our forecast period, increased gas consumption would see rising gas imports. However, given the strong influence of the nuclear lobby in France, the future of energy growth is uncertain. The outlook for refiners and fuel distributors remains poor.

GlobalData's "Upstream Oil and Gas Quarterly Deals Review, Q4 2013 - Similar Deal Activity among Corporate M&As and Capital Markets" report is an essential source of data and trend analysis on mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and financings in the upstream oil and gas industry. The report provides detailed information on M&As, equity/debt offerings, partnerships, and PE/VC transactions registered in the upstream segment in Q4 2013. The report provides detailed comparative data on the number of deals and their value in the last five quarters segregated into deal types, segments, and geographies.

Q2 2014 should see some significant changes in the Indian oil and gas sector. Firstly, the government set gas price will double to US$8.4/mnBTU on April 1 creating greater incentive to invest in more costly and technically challenging gas resources. This will be supported by the opening of the NELP X licensing round, where India is due to offer 46 new blocks allowing companies to prospect for all types of hydrocarbon resources, including shale. However, also introduced for NELP X will be a change from profit sharing contracts to revenue sharing contracts. We believe this could dissuade interest from a number of major international oil companies, particularly at more technically challenging developments.

Canada is one of the world’s biggest oil reserves in the world, next to the world’s first – Saudi Arabia. Alberta is a province located in western Canada, which is rich with a beautiful environment, plentiful natural resources, a strong economy, and a stable political system. There is an estimated 1.7 to 2.5 trillion barrels of bitumen in Alberta’s oil sands. Current production rates project that resources from Alberta’s oils sands could provide Canada’s energy needs for more than 500 years. This is equivalent to the world’s needs for up to 15 years.

ExxonMobil will imminently move forward with its appraisal of the Domino-1 discovery in the Black Sea discovery, signalling a positive turn in Romania's upstream outlook. Further exploration efforts in the Black Sea from international oil companies (IOCs) are providing upside risk to the country's outlook.

Although Italy is thought to retain moderate untapped hydrocarbons potential, bureaucratic and regulatory challenges are set to hamper previously outlined goals to reduce the country's hefty import burden. Despite the start of production from the Tempa Rosa field from 2017, we see only limited upside risk to our production forecast from current exploration and production efforts. While we expect increased reliance on liquifned natural gas (LNG) imports as new infrastructure comes online, we are not yet assuming all planned terminals will go ahead, given delays to other plans. We also see risks that Italy's sizable downstream sector will see further downsizing as the sector struggles under the pressure of persistently low margins.

Euromonitor International's Industrial reports provide a 360 degree view of an industry. The Industrial market report offers a comprehensive guide to the size and shape of the Manufacture and Distribution of Gas market at a national level. It provides the latest retail sales data, allowing you to identify the sectors driving growth. It identifies the leading companies, the leading brands and offers strategic analysis of key factors influencing the market - be they new product developments, packaging innovations, economic/lifestyle influences, distribution or pricing issues. Forecasts illustrate how the market is set to change.

Green Auto Lube has recently announced the availability of ancillary services at the most affordable prices. The services consist of everything from the most sought-after voltage support to replacement reserve,and even load regulation.

While there are efforts to stimulate upstream oil and gas activity, there is little to suggest that South Korea can develop significant resources, meaning the country is set to remain a key importer of crude and natural gas in liquefied form. The government is planning initiatives aimed at reducing oil and LNG consumption, though a safety scandal in the nuclear industry is driving demand of LNG imports to provide short-term cover for lost power generation.

Gas production from the Tamar field is expected to ramp up considerably since coming online in March 2013 and will make Israel self-sufficient in natural gas supplies for the first time ever. We expect stagnation in production growth through to 2015 as bottlenecks at the onshore receiving facility at Ashdod will limit production to 10.5bcm. This should be resolved by 2016 in sufficient time to take output from the Leviathan field where development will begin in mid-2014. Gas from Leviathan could flow from late 2018 with export opportunities increasingly likely from this point. We see comparatively strong liquids upside with growing condensate volumes from Tamar and eventually Leviathan. Furthermore, near shore licences are showing greater likelihood of condensate and oil providing upside for the oil reserves outlook.

Although South Sudan avoided another production shut-in only after successful diplomatic efforts, political crisis was again on track to derail the oil sector. At the time of writing, South Sudan was in the midst of a civil war, which had already interrupted production that had been on its way to recovery. While the outcome of the conflict was uncertain, it underscored our caution with regard to both Sudan and South Sudan, where above-ground risks remain extremely elevated. Below ground, a similarly bearish outlook could prove problematic for the plans to construct a pipeline from South Sudan's fields to end its reliance on Khartoum. Similarly, we are less than optimistic over Sudan's push for dramatic production increases, retaining our overall bearish view for the combined oil sectors of Sudan and South Sudan.

Sustained interest from major international companies in Ukraine's gas reserves provides some upside potential in alleviating a part of its import burden in the long run. However, a recent deal with Gazprom, which cuts natural gas import prices to Ukraine by 33%, poses risks to new exploration and production developments as the downward pressure on prices could weaken the profit margins of the exploration and production (E&P) activity.

while our oil and gas production forecasts are still fundamentally cautious given Argentina's poor business environment, we are turning modestly more optimistic toward the country's oil and gas sector. Indeed, its small steps toward reform have been met with enthusiasm by international firms, resulting in a number of investment agreements in the past few quarters. We do not discount the substantial risks inherent in operating in Argentina. However, its massive shale potential, and recent political signals that we are likely to see more orthodox policymaking ahead - at least when it comes to the oil and gas sector - suggest that the risks to our view lie to the upside.

The first LNG deliveries from Papua New Guinea's ExxonMobil-led PNG LNG facility, the country's first gas export project, are expected as scheduled in H2 2014. There continues to be new proposals for LNG exports, and with Total's deal in PRL 15, Interoil's LNG export plans for the Elk/ Antelope field may finally move forward. Gas projects will also offer some relief to a decline in liquids output, condensate from the PNG LNG project will give oil production a temporary boost.

Although the start of a number of small fields and continued interest in West Africa's deepwater are positive trends for Equatorial Guinea's oil and gas sector, the temporary recovery in oil production will gave way to gradual downtrend, placing the country's heavily oil-dependent economy at risk. While new discoveries could to support an expansion of the country's LNG export capacity, uncertainty over the market and infrastructure has rendered investment decisions repeatedly delayed. Notwithstanding the possibility of new discoveries, we expect both oil and gas production in the West African nation to gradually head lower over the course of the decade.

Malaysia's upstream segment could see good days ahead in the short-to-medium term as the completion of both greenfield and brownfield developments brings new volumes of oil and gas online. New gas supplies will underpin continued expansion in the country's liquefied natural gas production based in Sarawak. Consumption growth will limit some of the export gains to be made from growing output, though a reduction of oil and gas subsidies would see a slowdown in the rate of this. The expansion of its downstream capacity could be more challenging, as it would face fierce competition from neighbouring Singapore.