The United States welcomes China, as well as any of our trading partners, to receive imports of LNG from the United States. The United States treats China no less favorably than other non-FTA trade partners with regard to LNG export authorizations. Companies from China may proceed at any time to negotiate all types of contractual arrangement with U.S. LNG exporters, including long-term contracts, subject to the commercial considerations of the parties. As of April 25, 2017, the U.S. Department of Energy had authorized 19.2 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas exports to non-FTA countries.

The light, sweet contract for June crude oil delivery gained 50¢ to close at $47.83/bbl on the New York Mercantile Exchange May 11. The July contract also climbed 50¢ to settle at $48.20/bbl. The natural gas price for June was up 8¢ to a rounded $3.37/MMbtu. The Henry Hub cash gas price gained 9¢ to $3.20/MMbtu on May 11. The Brent crude contract for July on London’s ICE was up 55¢ to settle at $50.77/bbl. The August contract increased 51¢ to $51.05/bbl. The June gas oil contract was $449/tonne, up $5.

U.S. Rig Count is up 479 rigs from last year's count of 406, with oil rigs up 394, gas rigs up 85, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged. Canadian Rig Count is up 37 rigs from last year's count of 43, with oil rigs up 13, gas rigs up 25, and miscellaneous rigs down 1 to 0.

PETROBRAS - Net income of R$ 4,449 million in 1Q17, compared to a loss of R$ 1,246 million in 1Q-2016

International Brent crude futures were at $50.96 per barrel at 0646 GMT on Friday, up 19 cents, or 0.37 percent, from their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $48.01 per barrel, up 18 cents, or 0.38 percent.

OPEC will decide formally whether to extend the cuts when its ministers meet in Vienna on May 25. The producer group and other major suppliers including Russia agreed last year to cut their collective production by about 1.8 million barrels a day for the first half of 2017 in an effort to reduce bloated global stockpiles and re-balance the market.

Private investment in U.S. natural gas and oil infrastructure could create over 1 million U.S. jobs.

Iran said that it has plans to increase its crude oil production capacity by 3 million barrels per day.

Managing Director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Ali Kardor said Iran has so far recovered 1,060 billion cubic meters of natural gas from the supergiant South Pars Gas Field, adding the recovery has fetched Iran over 191 billion dollars in revenue.

Iran plans to strike $80 billion worth of oil contracts over coming two years as the country is set to implement newly-developed IPC contracts, a deputy head of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) said