REUTERS - Exxon along with Petrobras and Qatar Petroleum Intl shelled out 2.8 billion reais ($844 million) for a block in Brazil’s offshore Campos basin as the American oil major seeks to aggressively replace dwindling reserves.

BAKER HUGHES A GE - U.S. Rig Count is down 2 rigs from last week to 993, with oil rigs down 7 to 797, gas rigs up 4 to 194 and miscellaneous rigs up 1 to 2. Canada Rig Count is down 27 rigs from last week to 134, with oil rigs down 22 to 71 and gas rigs down 5 to 63.

OGJ - The governments of China and the Philippines say they’re moving toward cooperative offshore oil and gas exploration.

BLOOMBERG - The government has paid out 109 billion kroner ($14 billion) since 2005 to explorers such as Lundin Petroleum AB and Repsol SA. It helped attract more companies to Norway, nearly doubling the pace of exploration and leading to key discoveries such as the multi-billion-barrel Johan Sverdrup field.

OPEC - Participating OPEC and non-OPEC producing countries have set a new record in February with their voluntary production adjustments, achieving a level of 138%, according to the OPEC-non-OPEC Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC).

BLOOMBERG - Oil’s recovery to almost $70 a barrel hasn’t been sufficient to stimulate the return of enough investment in the sector, according to Saudi Arabia’s energy minister.

BAKER HUGHES A GE - U.S. Rig Count is up 5 rigs from last week to 995, with oil rigs up 4 to 804, gas rigs up 1 to 190, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 1. Canada Rig Count is down 58 rigs from last week to 161, with oil rigs down 51 to 93, gas rigs down 7 to 68, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 0.

NPD - Preliminary production figures for February 2018 show an average daily production of 1 944 000 barrels of oil, NGL and condensate, which is a decrease of 83 000 barrels per day compared to January.

AOG - China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the world’s third largest oil company, has been awarded stakes in two of Abu Dhabi’s offshore concession areas following the signing of agreements with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC).

PLATTS - UK oil production is expected to rise by 9% this year, to nearly 1.1 million b/d, while gas output will remain flat and the longer term looks less positive, industry group Oil & Gas UK said Tuesday.

Oil production and prices will up

AOG - Total contributed a participation fee of $1.15bn to enter the Umm Shaif and Nasr concession and a fee of $300mn to enter the Lower Zakum concession. Both concessions are operated by ADNOC Offshore, a subsidiary of ADNOC, on behalf of all concession partners.

BAKER HUGHES A GE - U.S. Rig Count is up 6 rigs from last week to 990, with oil rigs up 4 to 800, gas rigs up 1 to 189, and miscellaneous rigs up 1 to 1. Canada Rig Count is down 54 rigs from last week to 219, with oil rigs down 52 to 144 and gas rigs down 2 to 75.

EQUINOR - The board of directors of Statoil proposes to change the name of the company to Equinor. The name change supports the company’s strategy and development as a broad energy company.

IEA - Looking at demand, our estimate for global growth in 2018 has increased by 90 kb/d taking it up to 1.5 mb/d. Although this is a modest revision, it is interesting that provisional data suggests very strong starts to the year in China and India, which, taken together, accounted for nearly 50% of global demand growth in 2017. Cold weather in some parts of the northern hemisphere in January-February saw an increase in heating demand.