REUTERS - South Korea’s March crude oil imports from Iran dropped 39.3 percent from a year earlier on slowing demand for Iranian oil, the country’s customs data showed on Sunday.

BAKER HUGHES A GE - U.S. Rig Count is up 5 rigs from last week to 1,008, with oil rigs up 7 to 815, gas rigs down 2 to 192, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 1. Canada Rig Count is down 9 rigs from last week to 102, with oil rigs down 7 to 41 and gas rigs down 2 to 61.

REUTERS - Recovering from earlier losses, Brent crude LCOc1 was up 28 cents at $72.30 a barrel by 1301 GMT and set for a weekly gain of almost 8 percent, or about $5.U.S. crude for May delivery CLc1 rose 28 cents to $67.35, up more than 8 percent, or about $5, for the week.

REUTERS - “There is growing confidence that the declaration of cooperation will be extended beyond 2018,” Barkindo told. “Russia will continue to play a leading role.”

PLATTS - "Since 2013-2014 we have seen a rapid drop off in investment which we believe will bite the consumers and the industry as a whole," Falih said at a media briefing at the International Energy Forum. "We are trying to signal to the market, to the investors, to the financial community, to international oil companies to put investments back into the upstream."

BLOOMBERG - OPEC said its oil output fell to the lowest in a year last month amid reduced supplies from Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, suggesting global markets may tighten sharply later this year.

PLATTS - "It cannot be the case that Nord Steam 2 means that Ukraine no longer has any significance in transiting [Russian] gas," Merkel said after a meeting with Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko.

GAZPROM - Nord Stream 2 AG received the second permit required for the construction and operation of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in the Finnish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), thereby completing the permitting procedure in Finland.

REUTERS - GAIL renegotiated the terms of a long-term 2.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) liquefied natural gas (LNG) purchase deal with Russia’s Gazprom in January.

REUTERS - But it warned that all its expectations hinged on Ukraine sticking with its $17.5 billion programme with the IMF, which has expressed concern about perceived backtracking on reforms and delays in implementing policies to tackle corruption.