2018

PLATTS - Russia will invest $5 billion to raise Venezuela's oil production by 1 million b/d under a new economic agreement, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Thursday.

REUTERS - Electricity production from French nuclear reactors rose 8 percent in November compared with the same month a year-ago due to a low volume of outages, state-controlled utility EDF said on Monday.

CONOCOPHILLIPS - ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) announced its 2019 capital expenditure budget and operating plan. The operating plan reflects the company’s ongoing commitment to free cash flow generation, differentiated payout to shareholders and superior financial returns through business cycles.

PLATTS - At 11:00 am Singapore time (0300 GMT), ICE February Brent crude futures were up 43 cents/b (0.7%) from Friday's settle at $62.10/b, while the NYMEX January light sweet crude contract inched 2 cents/b (0.04%) lower to $52.59/b.

OPEC - Accordingly, the 5th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting, following deliberations on the immediate oil market prospects and in view of a growing imbalance between global oil supply and demand in 2019, hereby decided to adjust the overall production by 1.2 mb/d, effective as of January 2019 for an initial period of six months. The contributions from OPEC and the voluntary contributions from non-OPEC participating countries of the ‘Declaration of Cooperation’ will correspond to 0.8 mb/d (2.5%), and 0.4 mb/d (2.0%), respectively.

U.S. EIA - On November 23, the natural gas spot price at the Henry Hub in Louisiana was $4.70 per million British thermal units (MMBtu), the highest price since a temporary spike in January 2018, and before that, the highest price since June 2014.

REUTERS - Australia overtook Qatar as the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for the first time in November, data from Refinitiv Eikon showed on Monday.

U.S. BLS - Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 155,000 in November, and the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in health care, in manufacturing, and in transportation and warehousing.

REUTERS - Angra 3 would be Brazil’s third nuclear plant. Earlier this year sources told Reuters that the project was struggling to find investors. Albuquerque said that up to 49 percent of the project was open to private investment.

WNN - The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and First Light Fusion are collaborating on a project to convert fusion reactions into heat to enable clean power production. The 'fusion island' project is to be partly funded by a grant from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS).