North Sea Brent crude oil spot prices averaged $58 per barrel (b) in October, an increase of $1/b from the average in September. EIA forecasts Brent spot prices to average $53/b in 2017 and $56/b in 2018.

President Donald Trump can return to the United States claiming to have snagged over $250 billion in deals from his maiden trip to Beijing. Whether those deals live up to the lofty price tag is another question altogether. Some huge deals were announced. Among them is a 20-year $83.7 billion investment by China Energy Investment Corp in shale gas developments and chemical manufacturing projects in West Virginia, a major energy producing state that voted heavily for Trump in the 2016 election.

China’s top state oil major Sinopec, one of the country’s top banks and its sovereign wealth fund have agreed to help develop Alaska’s liquefied natural gas sector as part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit, the U.S. government said on Thursday. The agreement will involve investment of up to $43 billion, create up to 12,000 U.S. jobs during construction, reduce the trade deficit between the United States and Asia by $10 billion a year, and give China clean energy.

Barclays raised its Brent oil price forecast, saying Brent will average $60/bbl during the fourth quarter and will average $55/bbl in 2018. The average 2018 forecast was up $3 compared with Barclays earlier forecast.

Energy majors BP, Shell and Statoil are to co-develop a blockchain-based digital platform for energy trading.

The South China Sea is a major route for liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade, and in 2016, almost 40% of global LNG trade, or about 4.7 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), passed through the South China Sea.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government wants to raise the share of natural gas in India’s energy mix to 15 percent in the next few years from about 6.5 percent now.

Indonesia plans to increase LPG imports from Saudi Arabia and the UAE in a bid to meet rising domestic demand, Energy and Mines Ministry spokesman Dadan Kusdiana said

Bob Dudley – Group chief executive: “We are steadily building a track record of delivering on our plans and growing across our businesses. This quarter, three new Upstream projects and the highest Downstream earnings in five years, underpinned by reliable operations and disciplined spending, have generated healthy earnings and cash flow. There is still room for further improvement and we will keep striving to increase sustainable free cash flow* and distributions to shareholders.”

Shell has completed the sale of a package of UK North Sea assets to Chrysaor for a total of up to $3.8bn, including an initial consideration of $3.0bn and a payment of up to $600m between 2018-2021 subject to commodity price, with potential further payments of up to $180m for future discoveries. This sale was announced on 31 January 2017 and has an effective date of 1 July 2016. Completion follows receipt of all necessary regulatory and partner approvals.

Royal Dutch Shell plc (Shell), through its affiliates, has completed the sale of its entire Gabon onshore oil and gas interests to Assala Energy Holdings Ltd. (Assala Energy) a portfolio company of The Carlyle Group (CG: NASDAQ), for a total of USD $628 million including amount equivalent to interest.

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: APC) announced its third-quarter 2017 results, reporting a net loss attributable to common stockholders of $699 million, or $1.27 per share (diluted). These results include certain items typically excluded by the investment community in published estimates. In total, these items increased the net loss by $272 million, or $0.50 per share (diluted), on an after-tax basis.(1) Net cash provided by operating activities in the third quarter of 2017 was $639 million.

IMF - Saudi Arabia had made good progress in initiating its ambitious reform agenda. Fiscal consolidation efforts are beginning to bear fruit. Progress with reforms to improve the business environment are gaining momentum, and a framework to increase the transparency and accountability of government is in place. Effective prioritization, sequencing, and coordination of the reforms is essential, and they need to be well-communicated and equitable to gain social buy-in to ensure their success.

Exxon Mobil Corporation announced estimated third quarter 2017 earnings of $4 billion, or $0.93 per diluted share, compared with $2.7 billion a year earlier as commodity prices improved and performance in the Upstream and Downstream strengthened. Impacts related to Hurricane Harvey reduced earnings by an estimated 4 cents per share.

"Total reported adjusted net income of $2.7 billion this quarter, a 29% increase compared to a year ago while the Brent price increased by 14%. This solid performance was also reflected in a return on equity of close to 10% and strong cash flow generation: excluding acquisitions-divestments, the Group generated $2.1 billion of cash flow after investments in the third quarter 2017 and $5.2 billion in the first nine months. The Group took full advantage of the favorable environment thanks to the performance of its integrated model and its strategy to reduce its breakeven point.