Australia’s LNG exports rose by 2% last month following a worldwide rise in demand for the product.

U.S. Rig Count is up 17 rigs from last week to 481, with oil rigs up 15 to 396, gas rigs up 2 to 83, and miscellaneous unchanged at 2. Canadian Rig Count is up 4 rigs from last week to 126, with oil rigs up 5 to 65, gas rigs unchanged at 60, and miscellaneous rigs down 1 to 1.

International Brent crude oil futures were trading at $46.20 per barrel at 8.47 p.m. ET, up 16 cents, or 0.35 percent, from their last close and not far off their $46.30 monthly high reached in the previous session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $43.71 a barrel, up 22 cents, or 0.51 percent, from their last close.

Saudi Arabia didn’t agree to limits on its production back in April because Iran, its regional rival, refused to join in. Several OPEC members want to revive the idea because Iran has regained much of the energy-industry might it lost during the years of Western sanctions.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were trading at $41.34 per barrel at 8.32 p.m. ET, down 37 cents, or 0.9 percent, from their last settlement. International Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $43.72 a barrel, down 33 cents, or 0.8 percent.

In the first five months of 2016, U.S. crude oil exports averaged 501,000 barrels per day (b/d), 43,000 b/d (9%) more than the full-year 2015 average.

Gazprom's sales volume to its core ‘Europe and other’ markets in 1Q grew by 49% to 58.1bn m³, an increase of 19bn m³ on 39.1bn m³ in January-March 2015. Sales to former Soviet countries declined by 15.5% (by 2bn m³) to 10.9bn m³, while those in Russia declined more modestly to 75.4bn m³, just 6% or 4.9bn m³ less than in 1Q 2015.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude exporter, told OPEC that it boosted oil output to a record 10.67 million barrels a day in July, two people with knowledge of the data said. Iran’s output is up to 3.85 million barrels a day, Fars news agency reported, citing Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh.

Brent crude oil prices are forecast to average $42/b in 2016 and $52/b in 2017. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil prices are forecast to be slightly less than Brent in 2016 and the same as Brent in 2017.

Global consumption of petroleum and other liquid fuels is estimated to have grown by 1.4 million b/d in 2015. EIA expects global consumption of petroleum and other liquid fuels to again increase by 1.4 million b/d in both 2016 and 2017, mostly driven by growth in countries outside of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Non-OECD consumption growth was 1.0 million b/d in 2015, and it is expected to be 1.3 million b/d in 2016 and 1.5 million b/d in 2017.

“We still haven’t reached the moment when OPEC members will agree to a production agreement, as Iran has not yet recovered its pre-sanction production levels,” Giovanni Staunovo, an analyst at UBS, said by e-mail. “Nigerian and Libyan oil output are also currently below capacity.”

Profit attributable to the owners of PJSC Gazprom for the three months ended March 31, 2016 totaled RUB 362,309 million which is RUB 19,803 million, or 5% less than for the same period of the prior year.

Brent crude for October LCOc1 was up 13 cents at $45.52 a barrel by 1042 GMT (0642 ET), after rising $1.12 on Monday. The global benchmark fell nearly 15 percent in July. U.S. crude for September CLc1 was up 21 cents at $43.23.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures were at $42.01 per barrel at 0022 GMT, up 21 cents, or 0.5 percent, from their last close. Brent crude futures were trading at $44.40 per barrel, up 13 cents, or 0.29 percent.

Greenspan sees oil trading in a range of about $40 to $50 a barrel over the next couple of years. A $50 price would be high enough to encourage new shale oil production in the U.S., he said. Oil futures traded near $42 a barrel in New York on Thursday, down from a 2016 closing high of $51.23 on June 8.