WNN - Russia and Sri Lanka have held talks this week on establishing cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Nikolay Spassky, deputy director general of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, met with Ranjith Siyambalapitiya and Susil Premajayantha, respectively Sri Lanka's minister of power and renewable energy and minister of science, technology and research, on 16-17 January.

BLOOMBERG - Mexico, Chile and Peru offer strong potential for growth in renewable energy, and governments in the region are courting international investors to help diversify the electricity mix.

PLATTS - "The domestic uranium mining industry needs US government assistance to survive the foreign onslaught -- particularly from Russia and Kazakhstan -- that has undermined the US uranium industry while new players -- particularly China -- will soon make the situation worse," Energy Fuels and Ur-Energy said in a petition they jointly filed with the department.

REUTERS - India’s biggest explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has agreed to buy the government’s majority stake in state-refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp for 369 billion rupees ($5.78 billion).

BLOOMBERG - Engie bought the cargo from Petroliam Nasional Bhd and that the Malaysian company in turn bought it from Yamal LNG operator Novatek PJSC. It was the first cargo from the Siberian plant.

OGJ - Albania’s government remains committed to detail to support any serious investor who will come up with a project for business development in Ballsh and Fier refineries, or a bid from an investor to develop a business plan in the sector, involving restart of both refineries.

PLATTS - After see-sawing around Thursday's settle, the NYMEX February natural gas futures contract ultimately settled Friday at $3.185/MMBtu, 0.4 cent lower as an increasingly bearish demand picture forms through the end of January.

FT - Excluding those items, earnings per share for the fourth quarter of 2017 were 48 cents, up 78 per cent from the equivalent period of 2016 and above the average forecast of 44 cents.

SCHLUMBERGER - Full-year 2017 revenue of $30.4 billion increased 9% year-on-year. This included a full year’s activity from the acquired Cameron businesses as compared to three quarters of activity in 2016. Excluding the addition of Cameron, revenue growth was driven by land activity in North America, which increased by 82% in line with the increase in rig count. Full-year Production Group revenue increased 21%, Reservoir Characterization Group revenue improved 2%, and Drilling Group revenue declined 2%.

BAKER HUGHES A GE - U.S. Rig Count is down 3 rigs from last week to 936, with oil rigs down 5 to 747, gas rigs up 2 to 189, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged. Canada Rig Count is up 49 rigs from last week to 325, with oil rigs up 23 to 208 and gas rigs up 26 to 117.

REUTERS - Brent crude futures were at $68.78 at 0128 GMT, down 53 cents, or 0.8 percent, from their last close. On Monday, they hit their highest since December, 2014 at $70.37 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $63.36 a barrel, down 59 cents, or 0.9 percent, from their last settlement. WTI marked a December-2014 peak of $64.89 a barrel on Tuesday.

BLOOMBERG - Russia’s oil and gas index may gain another 20 to 30 percent this year as investors have yet to price in Brent at $70 per barrel, according to Sberbank CIB. "The sell side is assuming an average oil price of $55 per barrel for 2018,” the bank’s analysts said in a Jan. 15 note. "Should the oil price stay at the current level, we will see a wave of earnings upgrades.”

EIA - EIA forecasts that total fossil fuels production in the United States will average almost 73 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) in 2018, the highest level of production on record. EIA expects total fossil fuel production to then set another record in 2019, with production forecast to rise to 75 quadrillion Btu.

U.S.DT - The sum total in November of all net foreign acquisitions of long-term securities, short-term U.S. securities, and banking flows was a monthly net TIC inflow of $33.8 billion. Of this, net foreign private inflows were $49.7 billion, and net foreign official outflows were $15.9 billion.

U.S. FRB - Industrial production rose 0.9 percent in December even though manufacturing output only edged up 0.1 percent. Revisions to mining and utilities altered the pattern of growth for October and November, but the level of the overall index in November was little changed. For the fourth quarter as a whole, total industrial production jumped 8.2 percent at an annual rate after being held down in the third quarter by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. At 107.5 percent of its 2012 average, the index has increased 3.6 percent since December 2016 for its largest calendar-year gain since 2010.