REUTERS - Brent crude futures LCOc1 had climbed 61 cents, or 0.8 percent, from their last close to $76.92 per barrel by 0650 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were at $70.88, up 35 cents, or 0.5 percent.

IEA - Global gas demand will grow at an average rate of 1.6% a year, reaching just over 4,100 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2023, up from 3,740 bcm in 2017,

REUTERS - French oil and gas company Total SA expects the global natural gas market to grow far faster than that for crude oil over the next two decades thanks to booming demand for the cleaner-burning fuel in Asia, an outlook that underpinned Total’s recent big investments in the space, Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne said.

IMF: Austria’s economy is robust. Supported by expansionary monetary and fiscal policies, growth has picked up markedly, to 3 percent in 2017 and 3.1 percent (y/y) in Q1 2018. A recovery in private investment and a favorable external environment as growth in Europe accelerated more broadly, have underpinned growth. Concomitantly, unemployment has declined recently. Inflation remains broadly stable, at 2 percent (y/y) in April.

REUTERS - Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $74.22 per barrel at 0455 GMT, down 1.8 percent from their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were at $68.42 a barrel, down 0.2 percent, supported more than Brent by a slight drop in U.S. drilling activity and a Canadian supply outage.

BAKER HUGHES A GE - U.S. Rig Count is down 7 rigs from last week to 1,052, with oil rigs down 1 to 862, gas rigs down 6 to 188 and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 2. Canada Rig Count is up 21 rigs from last week to 160, with oil rigs up 16 to 103 and gas rigs up 5 to 57.

REUTERS - Benchmark Brent crude LCOc1 was up $1.05 a barrel at $74.10 by 0925 GMT. U.S. light crude CLc1 was 80 cents higher at $66.34.

BLOOMBERG - Russian Oil Minister Alexander Novak said in a speech yesterday that “we need to build upon our successful cooperation model and institutionalize its success through a broader and more permanent strategically focused framework.” His Saudi counterpart Khalid Al-Falih echoed those comments.

U.S. EIA - Collectively, these companies added a net 8.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) to their proved reserves during 2017, which totaled 277 billion BOE at the end of the year. Exploration and development (E&D) spending in 2017 increased 11% from 2016 levels, but remained 47% lower than 2013 levels.

U.S. EIA - Venezuela holds the largest oil reserves in the world, in large part because of the heavy oil reserves in the Orinoco Oil Basin. In addition to oil reserves, Venezuela has sizeable natural gas reserves, although the development of natural gas lags significantly behind that of oil. However, in the wake of political and economic instability in the country, crude oil production has dramatically decreased, reaching a multi-decades low in mid-2018.

U.S. BEA - The U.S. current-account deficit increased to $124.1 billion (preliminary) in the first quarter of 2018 from $116.1 billion (revised) in the fourth quarter of 2017, according to statistics released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). The deficit was 2.5 percent of current-dollar gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter, up from 2.4 percent in the fourth quarter.

REUTERS - Benchmark Brent crude LCOc1 was up 50 cents at $75.58 a barrel by 0835 GMT. U.S. light crude CLc1 was 50 cents higher at $65.57.

BLOOMBERG - OPEC members are discussing a compromise agreement that would see an oil production increase of between 300,000 and 600,000 barrels a day over the next few months,

PLATTS - Iran will not accept any proposals for OPEC to raise its quotas, the country's oil minister said Tuesday, adding that even a 500,000 b/d increase "is not necessary." "Decisions in OPEC need unanimity," Bijan Zanganeh said on arrival in Vienna ahead of OPEC talks this week. "I don't think at this meeting we can reach an agreement."

PLATTS - Since the US dropped all limits on crude exports in 2015, China has competed with Canada as the top buyer of US crude. US crude exports to China averaged over 358,000 b/d in the first quarter, up from nearly 175,000 b/d in Q1 2017. US crude's market share in China rose to 3.5% from 0.4% over the same period.