Rosneft has recently inked a number of deals which could facilitate the company’s ambitions to develop international gas trading and export operations, the latest stage in a long-running attempt to become a major gas player and access the lucrative export market.

Rosneft closed the deal to acquire a 30% stake in the concessions agreement for the development of Zohr field, the largest gas field in the Mediterranean Sea, from Italian company Eni S.p.A.

Wheatstone, co-owned by Australia’s Woodside Petroleum, Kuwait Foreign Exploration Co and Japan’s Kyushu Electric Power Co, has two gas liquefaction units, which at full capacity will supply 8.9 million metric tonnes of LNG a year to customers in Asia.

API announced that estimated wells completed in the third quarter of 2017 increased 63 percent compared to the third quarter of 2016. This includes a dramatic 84 percent increase for all oil wells completed from year-ago levels.

“This transaction allows us to focus our efforts in Brazil on areas where we see the most strategic value for Shell longer-term,” said Shell’s Integrated Gas and New Energies Director, Maarten Wetselaar. “Brazil is an important country to Shell, and our portfolio of high quality assets and development opportunities positions us well for the future.”

Nasser said vast opportunities for collaboration between companies from Saudi Arabia and Russia are created by both the Kingdom’s existing economic pillars and the development and diversification envisaged by Saudi Vision 2030.

NOVATEK’s marketable hydrocarbons production totaled 374.7 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe), including 46.03 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas and 8,806 thousand tons of liquids (gas condensate and crude oil), resulting in a decrease in total hydrocarbons production by 30.4 million boe, or by 7.5%, as compared with the nine months 2016.

Baker Hughes, a GE company (NYSE:BHGE) announced today that the Baker Hughes international rig count for September 2017 was 931, down 21 from the 952 counted in August 2017, and down 3 from the 934 counted in September 2016. The international offshore rig count for September 2017 was 190, down 11 from the 201 counted in August 2017, and down 31 from the 221 counted in September 2016.

U.S. Rig Count is up 412 rigs from last year's count of 524, with oil rigs up 320, gas rigs up 93, and miscellaneous rigs down 1 to 2. Canada Rig Count is up 44 rigs from last year's count of 165, with oil rigs up 25 and gas rigs up 19.

In the first nine months of 2017 Gazprom had supplied to Hungary 5.5 billion cubic meters of gas, an increase of 26.9 per cent, or 1.2 billion cubic meters, against the January-September period of 2016.