The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, through the Department of Commerce, announced today that the goods and services deficit was $48.5 billion in January, up $4.2 billion from $44.3 billion in December, revised. January exports were $192.1 billion, $1.1 billion more than December exports. January imports were $240.6 billion, $5.3 billion more than December imports.

The Norwegian economy is slowly picking up after a two-year slowdown in its top industry, oil production, due to a halving of crude prices since mid-2014. In recent months, crude prices have risen and stabilised at around $55 per barrel.

Royal Dutch Shell plc ("Shell") today announces the signing of binding definitive agreements between SOPC Holdings East LLC (a U.S. downstream subsidiary of Shell) and Saudi Refining Inc. ("SRI") (a wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi Arabian Oil Company (“Saudi Aramco”)) on the separation of assets, liabilities and businesses of Motiva Enterprises LLC (“Motiva”), a 50/50 refining and marketing joint venture.

In the fourth quarter of 2016, Eni reported an adjusted operating profit of €1.29 billion, up by 103% or €0.65 billion quarter-on-quarter, reversing the negative trend of the previous quarters, thanks to doubling in the E&P operating performance to €1.4 billion (up by €0.8 billion).

Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 1.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016. In the third quarter, real GDP increased 3.5 percent.

Highlights • Revenue of $667 million • Operating income of $118 million • EBITDA of $354 million • 99% economic utilization • Reported net income of $127 million and diluted net income per share of $0.26 • Underlying net income, excluding non-recurring items and non-cash mark to market movements on derivatives, was $111 million and earnings per share was $0.24 • Cash and cash equivalents of $1.4 billion • Seadrill Limited order backlog of approximately $2.5 billion

Profit attributable to NOVATEK shareholders increased by more than three-fold to RR 257.8 billion (RR 85.41 per share), as compared to RR 74.4 billion (RR 24.63 per share) in 2015. The amount of profit and its dynamics were significantly impacted by the foreign exchange effect (including at the joint ventures level), as well as the effect of the disposals of interests in joint ventures.

The executives predicted slower growth as “they forecast oil prices to take a long time to rebound to US$70 per barrel,” the point at which prices started to plunge two years ago, said Wu Yi, DNV’s business development manager for China, South Korea and Japan.

Maersk delivered an unsatisfactory loss of USD 1.9bn (profit of USD 925m) negatively impacted by post-tax impairments of USD 2.8bn (USD 2.6bn) primarily relating to Maersk Drilling of USD 1.4bn (USD 27m) and Maersk Supply Service of USD 1.2bn (USD 0m). In line with the latest guidance provided in November, the under lying profit came at USD 711m (USD 3.1bn). The return on invested capital (ROIC) was negative 2.7% (positive 2.9%). The free cash flow was negative USD 29m (positive USD 6.6bn including the sale of shares in Danske Bank of USD 4.9bn).

‘‘Suncor generated $2.4 billion in cash in the fourth quarter thanks to strong contributions from all of our assets and our focus on cost management,’’ said Steve Williams, president and chief executive officer. ‘‘Reliable performance throughout the year has helped us overcome challenging crude pricing and the major production outage associated with the Fort McMurray forest fires, resulting in annual cash flow significantly exceeding our annual sustaining capital and dividend commitments.’’

The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, through the Department of Commerce, announced today that the goods and services deficit was $44.3 billion in December, down $1.5 billion from $45.7 billion in November, revised. December exports were $190.7 billion, $5.0 billion more than November exports. December imports were $235.0 billion, $3.6 billion more than November imports.

For the full year of 2016 the RC loss was $999 million, compared with a loss of $5,162 million for the full year of 2015. Both periods were impacted by charges associated with the Deepwater Horizon accident and oil spill following the settlement of federal, state and local government claims in 2015 and additional provisions this year, when a reliable estimate for the remaining material liabilities was determined. After adjusting for a net charge for non-operating items of $2,828 million and net unfavourable fair value accounting effects of $756 million (both on a post-tax basis), underlying RC profit for the full year was $2,585 million, compared with $5,905 million for the same period in 2015, predominantly due to lower results in the Upstream and Downstream segments.

National Oilwell Varco, Inc. (NYSE: NOV) reported a fourth quarter 2016 net loss of $714 million, or $1.90 per share. Excluding other items, net loss for the quarter was $57 million, or $0.15 per share. Other items totaled $706 million, pretax, and were primarily associated with inventory charges, facility closures, and severance.

Full-year 2016 earnings were a net loss of $3.6 billion, or ($2.91) per share, compared with a full-year 2015 net loss of $4.4 billion, or ($3.58) per share. Excluding special items, full-year 2016 adjusted earnings were a net loss of $3.3 billion, or ($2.66) per share, compared with a full-year 2015 adjusted net loss of $1.7 billion, or ($1.40) per share.

Weatherford International plc (NYSE: WFT) reported a net loss of $549 million, or a loss of $0.59 per share, and non-GAAP net loss of $303 million before charges and credits ($0.32 non-GAAP loss per share) on revenues of $1.41 billion for the fourth quarter of 2016.