BLOOMBERG - Oil’s recovery to almost $70 a barrel hasn’t been sufficient to stimulate the return of enough investment in the sector, according to Saudi Arabia’s energy minister.

REUTERS - In a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange, Sinopec said it had allocated 117 billion yuan of capital expenditure for 2018, up from an actual spend of 99.38 billion yuan last year. That includes a 55 percent hike in upstream spending to 48.5 billion yuan, as China’s biggest refiner looks to make the most of a rally in oil prices since early February to over $70 a barrel.

BAKER HUGHES A GE - U.S. Rig Count is up 5 rigs from last week to 995, with oil rigs up 4 to 804, gas rigs up 1 to 190, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 1. Canada Rig Count is down 58 rigs from last week to 161, with oil rigs down 51 to 93, gas rigs down 7 to 68, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 0.

REUTERS - U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were at $64.99 a barrel at 0405 GMT, up 69 cents, or 1.1 percent, from their previous close. Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $69.54 per barrel, up 63 cents, or 0.9 percent. For the week, Brent was set for a gain of about 5 percent, its strongest showing since July last year, while WTI was up about 4.3 percent.

NPD - Preliminary production figures for February 2018 show an average daily production of 1 944 000 barrels of oil, NGL and condensate, which is a decrease of 83 000 barrels per day compared to January.

REUTERS - U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were at $63.69 a barrel at 0744 GMT, up 15 cents, or 0.2 percent, from their previous close. Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $67.56 per barrel, up 14 cents, or 0.2 percent.

PLATTS - ExxonMobil remains more bullish on the future for oil, predicting that demand for oil will likely continue to grow by 19% to 117 million b/d to 2040.

PLATTS - UK oil production is expected to rise by 9% this year, to nearly 1.1 million b/d, while gas output will remain flat and the longer term looks less positive, industry group Oil & Gas UK said Tuesday.

REUTERS - U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $62.02 a barrel at 0350 GMT, down 32 cents, or 0.5 percent, from their previous close. Brent crude futures were at $65.85 per barrel, down 36 cents, or 0.5 percent.

PLATTS - "The increase in competition induced new practices in the market that resulted in imports returning to normal," Petrobras' Jorge Celestino said during a presentation of the company's 2017 financial results.