U.S. Rig Count is down 12 rigs from last week to 775, with oil rigs down 16 to 578, and gas rigs up 4 to 197. U.S. Rig Count is down 1,154 rigs from last year at 1,929, with oil rigs down 1,004, and gas rigs down 149. The U.S. Offshore rig count is 33, down 2 rigs from last week, and down 20 rigs year over year.

During the 3-month period ending Sept. 30, an overall total of 51 oil and gas deals took place, accounting for $91.2 billion, which was higher than the 47 deals worth $38.8 billion that occurred in the previous quarter, but still down from the 83 deals worth $125.7 billion that occurred in third-quarter 2014.

U.S. imports of foreign oil are rising again after a long decline, as the oil bust forces domestic producers to scale back.

Estimated total U.S. oil and natural gas well completions decreased by 44 percent in the third quarter of 2015 compared to year-ago levels, according to API's 2015 Quarterly Well Completion Report, Third Quarter.

A Chinese holding company signed a letter of intent to purchase oil and gas assets in the Permian basin of West Texas for $1.3 billion through a limited liability partnership.

U.S. Rig Count is unchanged from last week at 787, with oil rigs down 1 to 594, and gas rigs up 1 to 193.

The plan appears to be working. Oil remains 33 percent lower than when OPEC revealed its strategy on Nov. 27, trading for $48.38 a barrel at 10:13 a.m. in London Wednesday. U.S. crude production has retreated about 500,000 barrels a day from the three-decade peak reached in June to 9.1 million a day in the week to Oct. 9, according to data from the Energy Information Administration.

The API Director of Upstream Erik Milito released the following statement regarding the Obama administration’s decision to deny Arctic offshore development extension requests and scheduled 2016 and 2017 Arctic lease sales

U.S. Rig Count is down 8 rigs from last week to 787, with oil rigs down 10 to 595, gas rigs up 3 to 192, and miscellaneous rigs down 1 to 0.

Brent crude was down 24 cents at $49.00 a barrel. Prices have more than halved from June 2014. U.S. crude fell 39 cents to $46.27 a barrel.