REUTERS - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in Warsaw on Saturday that the United States sees Nord Stream 2 as a threat to Europe’s energy security.

U.S.DT - The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today designated 21 individuals and 9 entities under four Executive Orders (E.O.s) related to Russia and Ukraine, including three individuals and two entities related to Russia’s transfer of four turbines made by a Russian-German joint venture to Crimea.

MOODY'S - Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") has today changed the outlook on Russia's Ba1 long-term issuer and senior unsecured debt ratings to positive from stable. Concurrently, Moody's affirmed Russia's long-term ratings at Ba1 and its short term rating at Not Prime (NP).

REUTERS -Speaking at the European Gas Conference in Vienna, Gazprom Chairman Viktor Zubkov said the company’s share of the European gas market, where it generates the majority of its revenue, rose last year to a record high of more than 35 percent, from about 33 percent in 2016.

BLOOMBERG - Oil exports from Qatar, one of OPEC’s smaller crude producers, to Japan last year slumped by almost a quarter to its lowest level since 1990, while shipments from giant supplier Saudi Arabia grew 8.1 percent, boosting its market share in the Asian nation to a record. Over in South Korea, imports from Qatar sank 26 percent to the least in seven years.

BLOOMBERG - With crude back at $70 a barrel, and a petroleum industry that cut costs to the bone after the oil crash, the stage is now set for another boom. But the good times could hamper Prime Minister Erna Solberg’s main aim of moving the economy away from a reliance on oil. As optimism now returns to the economy, signs of real progress on that project are few.

REUTERS -The deal follows an initial sale by Noble of 3.5 percent of the Tamar field in mid-2016. Combined proceeds from both deals amount to nearly $1.25 billion, of which almost $1 billion will be in cash, Noble said.

BLOOMBERG - The Gaselys carries liquefied natural gas originally produced in Siberia, according to vessel tracking data. The ship, poised to dock at Engie SA’s Everett import terminal, would be the first LNG shipment from anywhere other than Trinidad and Tobago in about three years.

REUTERS - U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were at $66.34 a barrel at 0144 GMT, up 20 cents, or 0.3 percent, from their last settlement. Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $70.49 per barrel, 3 cents below their last settlement.

API - Total petroleum deliveries in December rose to 20.7 million barrels per day. This was the strongest December monthly demand in the last decade.

BLOOMBERG - The expansion of Russia’s gas pipeline to Germany under the Baltic Sea, which bypasses a number of east European nations, will allow the Kremlin to use energy as a “political tool,” U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in Warsaw.

EBRD - He noted Ukraine continued to be one of the world’s most energy-intensive countries, three times more so than the EU average, and he said the country should focus on energy efficiency, diversifying energy sources and improving municipal services and infrastructure. The EBRD President referred specifically to the need for further improvements in governance. Progress had been made but corruption was still a barrier to foreign direct investment, he said. The establishment of anti-corruption institutions could make an important contribution to increasing transparency in the economy.

BEA - Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 2.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017 (table 1), according to the "advance" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the third quarter, real GDP increased 3.2 percent.

BAKER HUGHES A GE - U.S. Rig Count is up 11 rigs from last week to 947, with oil rigs up 12 to 759, gas rigs down 1 to 188, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged. Canada Rig Count is up 13 rigs from last week to 338, with oil rigs up 12 to 220 and gas rigs up 1 to 118.

PLATTS - The NYMEX February natural gas futures contract continued its surge Friday, as the February contract expired at $3.505/MMBtu, up 5.8 cents compared with Thursday's close.