The price of OPEC basket of fourteen crudes stood at $61.72 a barrel on Thursday, compared with $61.61 the previous day, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations.

Vietnam’s state television said Chinese President Xi Jinping had told Vietnam’s General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong he wanted to work with Southeast Asian nations on a code of conduct in the sea. China’s Xinhua news agency said China and Vietnam had agreed to properly handle maritime issues and strive to maintain peace and stability.

During President Donald Trump’s visit to Asia this week, a Chinese energy company pledged to spend almost $84 billion helping West Virginia build an entire supply chain that would bring the benefits of America’s shale gas boom to bear.

Vietnamese and U.S. companies on Sunday signed memorandums of understanding on gas development, automobiles, as well as aircraft engine purchase and support during U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to Vietnam.

Output is expected to slump to 1.84 million barrels a day next year, the lowest compared with official government data since 1989.

The world’s biggest oil explorer by market value recently finished four wells in North Dakota’s Bakken region that extend sideways for 3 miles (4.8 kilometers), Barclays Plc analyst Paul Cheng said in a research note after meeting Exxon executives, and it’s closing in on the 4-mile mark.

Saudi Aramco signed agreements with several oil and gas service contractors for oil and gas megaprojects designed to enhance the company’s energy sustainability, diversify the economy, expand gas production, and localize domestic content. The agreements are valued at nearly $4.5 billion in total.

TransCanada Corporation (TSX, NYSE: TRP) (TransCanada or the Company) announced net income attributable to common shares for third quarter 2017 of $612 million or $0.70 per share compared to a net loss of $135 million or $0.17 per share for the same period in 2016. Comparable earnings for third quarter 2017 were $614 million or $0.70 per share compared to $622 million or $0.78 per share for the same period in 2016. TransCanada's Board of Directors also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.625 per common share for the quarter ending December 31, 2017, equivalent to $2.50 per common share on an annualized basis.

Total SA has agreed to acquire LNG assets from Engie SA for as much as $2.04 billion. The deal includes interests in liquefaction plants, long-term LNG sales and purchase agreements, an LNG tanker fleet, and access to regasification capacities.

U.S. Rig Count is up 339 rigs from last year's count of 568, with oil rigs up 286, gas rigs up 54, and miscellaneous rigs down 1 to 1. Canada Rig Count is up 27 rigs from last year's count of 176, with oil rigs up 19 and gas rigs up 8.

Vietnam is one of Gazprom’s key partners in Southeast Asia. Together with PetroVietnam, we successfully conduct geological exploration and produce hydrocarbons, as well as make preparations to develop the country’s NGV market.

Benchmark Brent crude oil LCOc1 was unchanged at $63.49 a barrel by 0840 GMT. On Tuesday, Brent reached an intra-day high of $64.65, its highest since June 2015. U.S. light crude CLc1 was steady at $56.81, not too far off this week’s more than two-year high of $57.69 a barrel.

President Donald Trump can return to the United States claiming to have snagged over $250 billion in deals from his maiden trip to Beijing. Whether those deals live up to the lofty price tag is another question altogether. Some huge deals were announced. Among them is a 20-year $83.7 billion investment by China Energy Investment Corp in shale gas developments and chemical manufacturing projects in West Virginia, a major energy producing state that voted heavily for Trump in the 2016 election.

China’s top state oil major Sinopec, one of the country’s top banks and its sovereign wealth fund have agreed to help develop Alaska’s liquefied natural gas sector as part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit, the U.S. government said on Thursday. The agreement will involve investment of up to $43 billion, create up to 12,000 U.S. jobs during construction, reduce the trade deficit between the United States and Asia by $10 billion a year, and give China clean energy.

The worldwide rig count for October 2017 was 2,077, down 4 from the 2,081 counted in September 2017, and up 457 from the 1,620 counted in October 2016.