December 2016

Venezuela said on Tuesday it will cut 95,000 barrels-per-day of oil production in the New Year in fulfilment of a producers' deal to reduce global output and strengthen prices.

London Brent crude for February delivery LCOc1 was down 1 cents at $55.15 a barrel by 0335 GMT (10.35 p.m. ET) after settling up 11 cents on Friday. Oil markets were closed on Monday after Christmas at the weekend. NYMEX crude for February delivery CLc1 was up 10 cents at $53.12 a barrel, after closing at a 17-month high on Friday.

"We are also on track to hit this year an absolute record of annual gas exports, both of Soviet times and the history of modern Russia,"

Russia's output of oil products is expected to fall by about 2.5 percent in 2017 due to further work on a massive refinery modernisation programme aimed at boosting fuel quality, a deputy energy minister said.

A new deposit in Serbia’s Pannonian oil and gas basin may contain recoverable reserves of 432,000 tonnes, according to Russia's PJSC Gazprom Neft. The Idos-X-4 well was drilled to the Neogene-aged formation at a depth of 2,268-2,287 m in the Idos-Sever (Northern Idos) field.

U.S. Rig Count is down 47 rigs from last year's count of 700, with oil rigs down 15, gas rigs down 33, and miscellaneous rigs up 1. Canadian Rig Count is up 98 rigs from last year's count of 126, with oil rigs up 62, gas rigs up 31, and miscellaneous rigs up 5.

U.S. and European Union sanctions and a collapse in global oil prices have hurt the Russian economy and starved it of much-needed foreign investment.

Iraq is fully committed to delivering on OPEC’s Nov. 30 agreement to reduce supplies, Oil Minister Jabbar al-Luaibi said Thursday in Cairo at a meeting of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries, known as OAPEC.

According to latest data published by oil ministry’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC), LNG imports in October were 2.26bn m³, up almost 18.6% compared with the same month last year. Cumulative imports too remain substantially higher. For the April-October period, India’s LNG imports were 14.9bn m³, up by 25% on year.

Petroleo Brasileiro SA said on Wednesday it will sell $2.2 billion worth of assets to France's Total SA, including stakes in oilfields and two thermal power stations.