October 2016

Brent LCOc1 traded at $52.11 at 1000 GMT, 40 cents down, after touching $52.84 earlier, two cents below the 2016 high. U.S. oil futures traded as high as $50.74 a barrel, a three and a half month high, before falling by 30 cents to $50.14 a barrel. On Thursday they settled at $50.44 per barrel - the first settlement above $50 since June 23.

Last week, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to cut between 200,000 barrels a day and 700,000 barrels a day of their output to reduce a global oil glut. The 14-nation oil-producing group controls over a third of the world’s oil production, but said it also wanted non-OPEC producers to join the effort to curb output.

Britain is estimated to have substantial amounts of shale gas trapped in underground rocks and the government wants to exploit it to help offset declining North Sea oil and gas output. It said the shale gas industry could create 64,000 jobs and help economic growth.

The court judgment released on Wednesday found that the companies owed nearly 484 billion CFA francs in royalties to the Chadian government. It did not explain why the penalties amounted to more than 90 times that amount.

If Nigeria and Libya restore production, the kingdom may need to cut twice as much. U.S. shale drillers also stand ready to fill any supply gap.

Attracting strategic investors will give additional momentum to the development of Srednebotuobinskoye field, one of the largest oil and gas condensate fields in East Siberia, currently producing about 22 thousand barrels of oil per day. Partners within the joint project plan to create the infrastructure for further exploration and development of the reserves in the region.

The closed transaction is a symbolic one for the companies and marks the transition to a new level of cooperation in the Russian-Indian relations in the energy area. Indian companies obtain substantial interest in one of the biggest large-scale projects of Rosneft of the last decade, whereas Rosneft retains 61.1% shares in the project.

Rosneft and Pertamina signed an Agreement envisaging the creation of a Joint Venture (JV) with the scope of implementing the project for the construction of the Tuban refining and petrochemical complex to be located in the eastern part of Java (Indonesia).

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 $40.7 billion in August, up $1.2 billion from $39.5 billion in July, revised. August exports were $187.9 billion, $1.5 billion more than July exports. August imports were $228.6 billion, $2.6 billion more than July imports.

Brazil hopes the rules changes will attract foreign oil companies with resources that the scandal-plagued, debt-ridden Petroleo Brasileiro does not have.