API - “China’s retaliation will hit America’s energy industry particularly hard,” said API Vice President for Regulatory and Economic Policy Kyle Isakower. “American natural gas and oil companies already hit by U.S. tariffs on industrial products and specialty steel essential to our industry will now be faced with Chinese tariffs on critical U.S. exports, impacting American jobs that rely directly and indirectly on the energy industry.

REUTERS - U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were at $68.87 per barrel at 0647 GMT, down 9 cents from their last settlement. Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $73.40 per barrel, down 5 cents from their last close.

МИНФИН РОССИИ - Средняя цена нефти марки Urals по итогам января – июля 2018 года составила $ 69,43 за баррель. В 2017 году средняя цена на Urals в январе – июле составила $ 49,94 за баррель. Средняя цена на нефть марки Urals в июле 2018 года сложилась в размере $ 72,87 за баррель, что в 1,52 раза выше, чем в июле 2017 года ($ 47,85 за баррель).

PLATTS - Russia's July crude oil and condensate output rose 1.4% month on month to 11.215 million b/d, in line with Russia's pledge in late June to boost output under the deal with OPEC and other non-OPEC producers, preliminary data by the Central Dispatching Unit, the statistical arm of the energy ministry, showed Thursday.

REUTERS - The bill includes restrictions on new Russian sovereign debt transactions, energy and oil projects and Russian uranium imports, and new sanctions on Russian political figures and oligarchs.

BLOOMBERG - Saudi Aramco, as the state-owned company is known, cut pricing for September shipments of all grades to Asia, its largest market. Aramco set the premium for Arab Light crude to Asia at $1.20 a barrel above the Middle East benchmark, it said Thursday in an emailed price list. The reduction of 70 cents for Arab Light was the second consecutive monthly cut for the grade and was 10 cents deeper than the median estimate of five traders in a Bloomberg survey.

PLATTS - Iraqi southern crude oil exports in July surged to a record high of 3.543 million b/d, data from the oil ministry showed Wednesday, despite OPEC's second largest oil producer facing major protests near its key oil assets.

PLATTS - Kuwait's crude oil production currently stands at 2.8 million b/d, the country's oil minister Bakheet al-Rashidi said Wednesday, up about 90,000 b/d from June levels.

NOBLE - Noble Corporation plc (NYSE: NE, the Company) reported a net loss attributable to the Company for the three months ended June 30, 2018 of $628 million, or $2.55 per diluted share, on revenues of $258 million. The results included a non-cash charge totaling $793 million, or $2.06 per diluted share, ($507 million, net of tax and noncontrolling interests) relating to the impairment of three rigs and certain capital spares. Excluding the non-cash charge, the Company's net loss attributable to Noble Corporation for the three months ended June 30, 2018 would have been $121 million, or $0.49 per diluted share.

REUTERS - Brent spot crude oil futures dropped 30 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $73.91 a barrel by 0435 GMT, adding to a 1.8 percent loss in the previous session. U.S. crude futures were down 38 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $68.38 a barrel, having dropped nearly 2 percent on Tuesday.

U.S. EIA - U.S. energy expenditures declined for the fifth consecutive year, reaching $1.0 trillion in 2016, a 9% decrease in real terms from 2015. Adjusted for inflation, total energy expenditures in 2016 were the lowest since 2003. Expressed as a percent of gross domestic product (GDP), total energy expenditures were 5.6% in 2016, the lowest since at least 1970.

SHANA - Iran exported an average of 2.3 million barrels per day of crude oil to Asian and European countries during the four months. This is while exports for last calendar year's corresponding period stood at 2.115 mbd.

REUTERS - October Brent crude futures were last up 36 cents at $75.12 a barrel by 0902 GMT. The September contract expires on Tuesday. U.S. crude futures were up 78 cents at $69.47 a barrel.

PLATTS - "We [expect] that some 200,000-250,000 b/d, out of the 300,000 b/d cut under the production cut deal, will be restored [this month]," Novak said on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, according to a statement by the ministry's press office.

REUTERS - The new supply could enlarge Brazil’s market share in China as buyers there cut oil imports from the United States following Beijing’s announcement it would impose tariffs on U.S. crude in retaliation against similar moves by Washington.