European LNG imports in July fell 27.6% month on month to 6.8 Bcm due to weaker European pricing and a turndown in Qatari production, but a rebound in flows is expected in September

U.S. Rig Count is down 8 rigs from last week to 934, with oil rigs down 6 to 764, gas rigs down 2 to 169, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 1. Canada Rig Count is up 3 rigs from last week to 140, with oil rigs up 3 to 94 and gas rigs unchanged at 46.

The 1,230-km (765-mile) Nord Stream 2 pipeline, now under construction, has come under fire from the United States and several eastern European, Nordic and Baltic countries, which say the conduit will increase Europe’s reliance on Russian gas.

Russia expressed its readiness to cooperate with Turkey in its oil and gas explorations in the eastern Mediterranean.

Turkey has made continuous efforts to protect its sovereign rights and the rights of Turkish Cypriots in the Eastern Mediterranean region, where it has been drilling in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), which was registered with the United Nations in 2004.

Brent crude oil spot prices averaged $64 per barrel (b) in July, almost unchanged from the average in June 2019 but $10/b lower than the price in July of last year. EIA forecasts Brent spot prices will average $64/b in the second half of 2019 and $65/b in 2020. The forecast of stable crude oil prices is the result of EIA’s expectations of a relatively balanced global oil market. EIA forecasts global oil inventories will increase by 0.1 million barrels per day (b/d) in 2019 and 0.3 million b/d in 2020.

Indonesia's natural gas exports, including both pipeline and LNG, are expected to fall to a two-decade low in 2019, marking the furthest it has dropped since peaking in the late 1990s, on the back of depleting gas fields and the lack of new upstream projects.

"The best way to put downward pressure on gas prices remains more gas supply. Eastern Australian gas users have paid a high price for unnecessary, unscientific restrictions on gas development in Victoria, New South Wales and, until recently, the Northern Territory,"

U.S. Rig Count is down 4 rigs from last week to 942, with oil rigs down 6 to 770, gas rigs up 2 to 171, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 1. Canada Rig Count is up 10 rigs from last week to 137, with oil rigs up 6 to 91 and gas rigs up 4 to 46.

Indonesia will no longer need to import LNG by 2025 to meet the shortfall in domestic natural gas production as previously expected, as the country brings new projects on stream by 2024, the energy minister told reporters Wednesday.