VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Berkshire Hathaway made a significant investment in the energy firm Kinder Morgan during the final three-month period of 2015. This investment activity highlights Berkshire's increasing bet on the oil sector.

Saudi Arabia and Russia, the world's largest oil producers, have come to an agreement to reduce oil production into the January level. This is the first time for the two countries working together in efforts to fix the oil industry, which has been dropping for years.

Royal Dutch Shell said that its profit for the fourth quarter dropped 44% as the price of the crude oil tumble. The UK-based oil firm also confirmed that it is trimming 10,000 jobs, a move to reduce its costs.

China's benchmark Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) fell to lowest in the three-and-a-half years. PMI was at 49.4 for January as against average forecast of 49.6. The PMI was 49.7 in December 2015. The disappointed China factory output data pulled oil prices lower.

China shares plunged Tuesday at 6.4%. The Shanghai index closed below 2,800 for the first time since December 2014. The condition has worried the investors for the capital outflow from China. Other Asian markets dropped as oil prices decreased.

U.S. stocks bounced back after being dragged down on Wednesday by volatility in China. Global market followed to regain, while oil price began to stabilize.

Oil price continue to crash the lowest level. The price was closed at the lowest in 12 years to nearly $30 and is expected to continue dropping.

Oil prices plunge to the lowest level in more than a decade to below $33. The economic slowdown of China is also stammering global economy outlook even more.

The overnight gains on the Wall Street have boosted the market sentiment on Asian bourses ahead of the US Federal Reserve's meeting. The trading on Wednesday registered positive momentum in equities across the Asian markets.

Oil prices dropped on low volumes as investors preferred to book profit to take advantage of overnight rally. The oil price is hovering above $50 a barrel on disruption in production in Brazil and Libya.

It's yet not over for oil prices to go plunging as BP and Shell will report this week that billions of pounds were shelled off their profits as the aftermath of low oil price associated with exploration failures strike two of Britain's biggest companies.

Oil prices rose following the indications that stockpiles are declining and drop in drilling activity. The global oil benchmark Brent was up three percent as expectations that less drilling may reduce future oil production and inventories as well. Gasoline futures also surged on renewed demand. US crude's front-month rose 4.5 percent or $2 to end at $46.68 a barrel. Brent rose 3.1 percent and closed at $48.92/barrel. It's learnt that US drillers have called off drilling activity for the past three weeks. It's estimated that the US crude production may drop by 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) the second and fourth quarters this year.

Oil prices dropped further on Friday trading following the alert from the US Central Bank that global economy is weakening. Adding to this, indications that Organization of Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC) would keep up oil production, in order to maintain its market share, also further dampened the market confidence. Equities on the US and European stock markets opened lower. The fundamentals seem to have turned bearish, fell the analysts. Oil price is expected to be $80 per barrel by 2020.

Oil Prices increased Wednesday, but Shell is not expecting a recovery anytime soon. Lower inventories and oil production in US petroleum supply caused a spike on oil prices Wednesday, but giant oil company Shell admitted it will still take longer before any recovery.

It has been nine months since OPEC made a choice to abandon its production target unalterable and pursue market share rather than trying to prop up prices, the group is now faced with a set of complicated issues and decisions going forward.