Rosneft Board of Directors has approved a strategic cooperation agreement with Qatar Investment Authority and Glencore, providing for further cooperation in upstream projects, logistics and global trading.

Eni has agreed a $1.125bn deal to sell a 30 per cent stake in its giant Egyptian gas field Zohr to Rosneft, as the Italian company continues efforts to monetise the recently-discovered field.

U.S. Rig Count is down 85 rigs from last year's count of 709, with oil rigs down 26, gas rigs down 60, and miscellaneous rigs up 1. Canadian Rig Count is up 56 rigs from last year's count of 174, with oil rigs up 44, gas rigs up 11, and miscellaneous rigs up 1.

Brent crude for February delivery LCOc1 was up 12 cents at $54.01 a barrel by 0752 GMT, after rising 1.7 percent on Thursday. The contract hit its highest since July 2015 at $55.33 on Monday. U.S. crude for January delivery CLc1 was up 32 cents at $51.16 a barrel. Both contracts have lost nearly 1 percent so far this week.

The U.S. government is to check if sanctions where violated when Russia this week struck a deal to sell a stake in oil producer Rosneft to a consortium of Qatar's sovereign fund and commodities trader Glencore, the White House said.

OPEC crude oil production for November rose for the sixth straight month, to a record 33.86 million b/d.

Iraq’s Ministry of Oil has said that total oil exports for November have reached a record high of 4.051 million bpd.

Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) today announced a $19.8 billion capital and exploratory investment program for 2017. Included in the 2017 program are $4.7 billion of planned affiliate expenditures.

North Sea Brent crude was up 25 cents at $53.25 a barrel by 0940 GMT. U.S. light crude was up 20 cents at $49.97 a barrel.

Glencore and the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar are to take a 19.5 per cent stake in Russian oil company Rosneft in a surprise €10.5bn deal

Indian state-run oil refiners have called for Nigeria to increase its total term contract volumes next year by more than 20% as demand from the South Asian country climbs, an official from Nigeria's state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation said.

North Sea Brent crude oil LCOc1 was up 10 cents a barrel at $54.03 by 0950 GMT. U.S. light crude CLc1 was up 15 cents at $51.08 a barrel.

EIA forecasts Brent crude oil prices to average $43 per barrel (b) in 2016 and $52/b in 2017. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil prices are forecast to average about $1/b less than Brent prices in 2017. The values of futures and options contracts indicate significant uncertainty in the price outlook.

India, the world's third-biggest energy consumer, is striving to grow its natural gas use and shift away from oil and coal for power and industry, but its lack of gas import infrastructure is stymieing faster adoption of the cleaner-burning fuel.

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 $42.6 billion in October, up $6.4 billion from $36.2 billion in September.