BP PLC, on behalf of the Shah Deniz consortium, has let a $1.5-billion contract for the transport and installation of the deeper water subsea production systems for Shah Deniz Stage 2 offshore Azerbaijan to the BOS Shelf LLC, Saipem Contracting Netherlands BV, and Star Gulf FZCO consortium.

Rosneft Trading SA, a company of Rosneft Group, delivered its first LNG shipment as part of its contract with Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company. The delivery of the cargo was made by the GOLAR ICE tanker to the Ain Sukhna port within the Master LNG Supply and Purchase Agreement signed in August 2015.

On Friday, however, Export-Import Bank of China and China Development Bank signed two 15-year loans, for €9.34bn ($10.7bn) and Rmb9.76bn ($1.5bn) on Friday, according to regulatory statements from Yamal LNG.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude exporter, has raised June oil prices to Asia by the most in 14 months, in a hopeful sign that demand from the region is on the up.

U.S. Rig Count is down 5 rigs from last week to 415, with oil rigs down 4 to 328, gas rigs down 1 to 86, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 1. Canadian Rig Count is down 1 rig from last week to 36, with oil rigs up 1 to 11, gas rigs down 2 to 24, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 1.

“We still believe sustained front-month WTI at $45 to $50 will be self limiting, as U.S. shale-producer spending and drilling would stabilize and perhaps recover.”

The rout in crude prices is snowballing into one of the biggest avalanches in the history of corporate America, with 59 oil and gas companies now bankrupt after this week's filings for creditor protection by Midstates Petroleum MPOY.PK and Ultra Petroleum UPL.NL.

US commercial crude oil inventories, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, increased 2.8 million bbl for the week ended Apr. 29 compared with the previous week. The US Energy Information Administration estimated a total of 543.4 million bbl, which is historically high for this time of year.

China’s falling oil output and sliding U.S. production may help rebalance a market struggling to recover from the worst price crash in a generation

American LNG will be part of the approach towards diversification of sources of gas in Europe, in contrast to projects like Nord Stream 2 or the revived South Stream, which she said are not real sources of diversification.

Russian state-owned oil and gas giant Gazprom is currently working to create a liquefied natural gas (LNG) distribution hub in Bahrain. The hub will be meant to intake LNG from various sources, including Russia.

Gazprom reported the average production cost of natural gas in 2015 at ₽1643 per 1000 cubic meters (mcm) or $27.09/mcm or $0.84/MMBtu. The corresponding numbers for 2014 are ₽1470/mcm, $38.73/mcm and $1.21/MMBtu. The cost in US dollars is affected by the devaluation of Russian ruble. The average US dollar rate in 2015 was ₽60.66 compared with ₽37.97 in 2014.

Royal Dutch Shell’s first quarter 2016 CCS earnings attributable to shareholders (see Note 3) were $0.8 billion compared with $4.8 billion for the same quarter a year ago.

Adjusted net income was 572 million euros, compared with 928 million in the same quarter of the previous year, which included exceptional earnings of 500 million euros due mostly to the company’s dollar position after receiving funds for the expropriation of YPF, subsequently used for the acquisition of Talisman.

ZUG, SWITZERLAND-May 4, 2016-Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG) today reported net income attributable to controlling interest of $249 million, $0.68 per diluted share, for the three months ended March 31, 2016. First quarter 2016 results included net unfavorable items of $5 million, $0.01 per diluted share, as follows: $4 million, $0.01 per diluted share, in restructuring costs associated with employee severance; and $2 million related to the loss on impairment of the midwater floater Transocean John Shaw, which the company has identified for recycling.