U.S. Rig Count is down 6 rigs from last week to 898, with oil rigs down 4 to 738, gas rigs down 2 to 160, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 0. Canada Rig Count is down 3 rigs from last week to 147, with oil rigs down 3 to 102 and gas rigs unchanged at 45.

Brent was up 6 cents at $61.01 a barrel, WTI was up 5 cents at $56.35 a barrel.

Bankruptcy filings by U.S. energy producers through mid-August this year have nearly matched the total for the whole of 2018. A stock index of oil and gas producers hit an all-time low in August, a sign investors are expecting more trouble ahead.

The Emirate of Sharjah is one of the important destinations the Russian Business Council is seeking to penetrate its markets, thanks to the diverse investment opportunity and the encouraging economic and commercial climate.''

Saudi Aramco signed a Memorandum of Understanding (“MoU”) with China’s Zhejiang Free Trade Zone, in which the Zhoushan Government emphasized its support for incentivizing Saudi Aramco’s greater investment in Zhejiang’s future downstream growth.

Investment in new renewable energy is on course to total $2.6 trillion in the years from 2010 through the end of 2019, according to a study by BloombergNEF for the United Nations Environment Program and Frankfurt School’s UNEP Center published Thursday.

GAZPROM, KOGAS expressed interest in further expanding their cooperation in the area of LNG and continuing their sci-tech collaboration.

GAZPROM, MITSUI discussed issues related to their cooperation, expressing appreciation for the Sakhalin II project, which turned 25 years old this year.

Saudi Aramco, the world’s most profitable company, is trying to break into the fledgling market for liquefied natural gas trading. To do so, the state-owned company is tapping its decades-old network of oil-trading contacts, selling its first two cargoes to longstanding crude customers in South Korea and India.

Brent was up 17 cents at $60.87 a barrel, U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 1 cent to $56.27.