REUTERS - Germany has been assured by the United States that any sanctions imposed on Russia will not affect the building of a gas pipeline to bring Russian gas to Europe, a spokeswoman for the German economy ministry said on Friday.

IMF - Our latest forecast in April therefore projected the global economy to grow by 3.9 percent in 2018 and 2019 – 0.2 percent higher than our forecast last October. This acceleration is driven by both advanced countries and emerging and developing economies.

REUTERS - Japan has protested to China for allowing a gas drilling vessel to operate in disputed waters in the East China Sea, the government said

BAKER HUGHES A GE - U.S. Rig Count is down 5 rigs from last week to 1,047, with oil rigs down 4 to 858, gas rigs down 1 to 187 and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 2. Canada Rig Count is up 12 rigs from last week to 172, with oil rigs up 14 to 117 and gas rigs down 2 to 55.

REUTERS - U.S. light crude oil CLc1 was 20 cents lower at $73.25 a barrel at 0730 GMT. On Thursday, the contract hit its highest since November 2014 at $74.03 per barrel. Brent crude LCOc1 was unchanged at $77.85 a barrel.

PLATTS - "I think you're going to see a settling-down of the market -- people feeling comfortable that Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United States, we've got substantial production," Perry said, while acknowledging pipeline constraints in Texas that are holding back Permian Basin oil exports.

WSJ - Iran exports more than 2 million barrels a day of oil. President Donald Trump in May withdrew from a nuclear deal with Iran and reimposed sanctions that seek to force companies not to buy any Iranian oil.

BLOOMBERG - QATAR Petroleum, the world’s biggest seller of liquefied natural gas, is looking to get even larger, investing US$20 billion in America’s oil and gas fields, at a time when rival U.S. exporters are expanding.

FT - Anadarko has estimated the reserves in its Area 1 acreage off the coast of Mozambique at about 75tn cubic feet, implying a resource life of about 120 years at the initial production rate of 12.88m tonnes of LNG per year, but the consortium intends to expand the plant every five years to add more capacity.

WNN - For the foreseeable future, most new nuclear power technologies will still run, wholly or partially, on uranium, so it is important that this vital resource is mined, produced and managed sustainably, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano said this week. It is also essential to take full account of environmental concerns, "both to ensure public acceptance today and to avoid troubling legacy issues in the future", he added.

WNN - A group of 75 senior US figures, including former statesmen, military, industrial and academic leaders, have written to Energy Secretary Rick Perry imploring him to take immediate action to prevent the closure of reactors, citing the contribution of nuclear power to national security. Meanwhile, the US Senate has passed a 2019 appropriations bill providing USD1.2 billion for nuclear energy programmes and supporting nuclear innovation.

WNN - GE and EDF have signed a strategic cooperation agreement for the planned construction of six EPR reactors at the Jaitapur site in Maharashtra, India. The document was announced by Xavier Ursat, senior executive vice president of EDF in charge of new nuclear projects and engineering, and Andreas Lusch, president and CEO of GE's Steam Power business.

ROSATOM - ROSATOM and the French EDF Group signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Development of Innovative Cooperation at the World Nuclear Exhibition 2018 (WNE). The document was signed by Alexey Likhachev, General Director of ROSATOM and Jean-Bernard L?vy, Chairman and CEO of EDF Group.

ROSATOM - June 22, 2018 in Moscow ROSATOM and the Ministry of Infrastructure of the Republic of Rwanda signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the field of peaceful uses of atomic energy.

U.S. BEA - Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 2.0 percent in the first quarter of 2018 , according to the "third" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the fourth quarter, real GDP increased 2.9 percent.