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.

SHELL - Shell reiterated its expectation of $6-7 billion annual organic free cash flow from Downstream by 2020, at $60 per barrel (real terms 2016) and mid-cycle Downstream conditions, with $9-12 billion expected by 2025. The company plans to invest $7-9 billion a year across Downstream, and to deliver a return on average capital employed (ROACE) above 15%.

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 - ExxonMobil remains more bullish on the future for oil, predicting that demand for oil will likely continue to grow by 19% to 117 million b/d to 2040.

ROSNEFT - Net income attributable to Rosneft shareholders reached RUB 100 bln in 4Q 2017, more than doubling QoQ. In 12M 2017 it amounted to RUB 222 bln, exceeding the 2016 level by 27.6%.

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.

REUTERS - China’s metals industry issued the country’s most explicit threat yet in the row, urging on Friday for the government to retaliate by targeting U.S. coal - a sector that is central to Trump’s political base and his election pledge to restore American industries and blue-collar jobs.

API - “The oil and natural gas industry is a major contributor to the American economy and helps meet America’s constantly increasing energy needs. We support more than 10.3 million U.S. jobs and contribute $1.3 trillion to the U.S. economy - benefits that are felt across the country,” said API Director of Upstream and Industry Operations Erik Milito.

FT - The loans bring total Chinese energy finance in Africa since 2000 to $34.8bn. While this is well behind the $69bn lent in Europe and Central Asia, the $62bn in Latin America and the $60bn in Asia over the same period, the 2017 data illustrate Africa’s growing importance.

MOODY'S - Moody's Investors Service has downgraded the Government of Venezuela's foreign currency and local currency issuer ratings, foreign and local currency senior unsecured ratings, and foreign currency senior secured rating to C from Caa3. Concurrently, the foreign currency senior unsecured medium term note program has also been downgraded to (P)C from (P)Caa3. The outlook has been changed to stable from negative.

EIA - Brent global benchmark crude oil price will increase throughout the projection period but will remain lower than prices during 2010–2014 in real dollar terms. For this reason, future investment growth in higher-cost resources is expected to be lower than in recent history. Global production of tight oil will increase by 3.3 million b/d, offshore deepwater by 2.7 million b/d, and oil sands by 1.4 million b/d between 2017 and 2040. Total production increases from these sources makes up nearly half of the long-term global liquids supply growth through 2040.

REUTERS - “The stability in oil prices is a net positive. If energy companies can demonstrate to investors that they can generate cash flow in the current oil price environment, they can go public,” said Grant Kernaghan, Citigroup’s managing director of Canadian investment banking. “The recent volatility hasn’t resulted in markets shutting down,” he added, suggesting equity markets were still open despite a 10-session period up to Feb. 8 when the S&P 500 dropped over 10 percent.

BAKER HUGHES A GE - U.S. Rig Count is up 3 rigs from last week to 984, with oil rigs down 4 to 796, gas rigs up 7 to 188. Canada Rig Count is down 29 rigs from last week to 273, with oil rigs down 15 to 196 and gas rigs down 14 to 77.