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.

U.S. Rig Count is up 329 rigs from last year's count of 569, with oil rigs up 279, gas rigs up 52, and miscellaneous rigs down 2 to 2. Canada Rig Count is up 38 rigs from last year's count of 154, with oil rigs up 24 and gas rigs up 14.

The South China Sea is a major route for liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade, and in 2016, almost 40% of global LNG trade, or about 4.7 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), passed through the South China Sea.

Access to modern energy is incomplete. With a total population of nearly 640 million, an estimated 65 million people remain without electricity and 250 million are reliant on solid biomass as a cooking fuel. Investment in upstream oil and gas has been hit by lower prices since 2014 and the region faces a dwindling position as a gas exporter, and a rising dependency on imported oil.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government wants to raise the share of natural gas in India’s energy mix to 15 percent in the next few years from about 6.5 percent now.

Shell has completed the sale of a package of UK North Sea assets to Chrysaor for a total of up to $3.8bn, including an initial consideration of $3.0bn and a payment of up to $600m between 2018-2021 subject to commodity price, with potential further payments of up to $180m for future discoveries. This sale was announced on 31 January 2017 and has an effective date of 1 July 2016. Completion follows receipt of all necessary regulatory and partner approvals.

Royal Dutch Shell plc (Shell), through its affiliates, has completed the sale of its entire Gabon onshore oil and gas interests to Assala Energy Holdings Ltd. (Assala Energy) a portfolio company of The Carlyle Group (CG: NASDAQ), for a total of USD $628 million including amount equivalent to interest.

ExxonMobil and Chevron, the two largest US oil and gas groups, are continuing to lose money on oil and gas production in their home country, in spite of the rise in commodity prices since last year.

U.S. Rig Count is up 352 rigs from last year's count of 557, with oil rigs up 296, gas rigs up 58, and miscellaneous rigs down 2 to 0. Canada Rig Count is up 38 rigs from last year's count of 153, with oil rigs up 23 and gas rigs up 15.

EIA - Global natural gas consumption is expected to grow from 340 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2015 to 485 Bcf/d by 2040, primarily in countries in Asia and in the Middle East. China accounts for more than a quarter of all global natural gas consumption growth between 2015 and 2040.