The step to restructure debt comes as Venezuela stands to receive more revenue for its oil. The country’s crude oil basket price rose to CNY350.75 ($52.90) a barrel Friday, the highest since July 2015. And Venezuela did approve a $1.1 billion principal payment on a PDVSA bond on Thursday.

Energy majors BP, Shell and Statoil are to co-develop a blockchain-based digital platform for energy trading.

Brent futures LCOc1 were at $60.75 per barrel at 0739 GMT, up 13 cents, or 0.2 percent, from their last close. Brent has risen by around 37 percent since its low in 2017 reached last June. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 was at $54.70 a barrel, up 16 cents, or 0.3 percent, from the last close. WTI is around 30 percent above its 2017-low in June.

OPEC daily basket price stood at $58.49 a barrel Thursday, 2 November 2017

Средняя цена нефти марки Urals по итогам января – октября 2017 года составила $ 51,15 за баррель.

По линии энергетики Министр отметил потенциал сотрудничества по вопросам совместной разработки нефтяных и газовых месторождений на территории России и Саудовской Аравии, производства нефтегазового оборудования, разработки и внедрения современных технологий в области нефтегазодобычи, а также подготовки кадров для топливно-энергетического сектора Саудовской Аравии.

The South China Sea is a major route for liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade, and in 2016, almost 40% of global LNG trade, or about 4.7 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), passed through the South China Sea.

Brent crude futures LCOc1 were up 59 cents at $61.53 per barrel at 0905 GMT, having hit a session peak of $61.70 earlier, the highest since July 2015. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 was at $55.12 a barrel, up 74 cents.

ICE Brent crude futures remained at 27-month highs in mid-morning trade in Asia Monday, following the gains last week on the expectation that planned supply cuts will be extended to the end of 2018.

Access to modern energy is incomplete. With a total population of nearly 640 million, an estimated 65 million people remain without electricity and 250 million are reliant on solid biomass as a cooking fuel. Investment in upstream oil and gas has been hit by lower prices since 2014 and the region faces a dwindling position as a gas exporter, and a rising dependency on imported oil.

Bob Dudley – Group chief executive: “We are steadily building a track record of delivering on our plans and growing across our businesses. This quarter, three new Upstream projects and the highest Downstream earnings in five years, underpinned by reliable operations and disciplined spending, have generated healthy earnings and cash flow. There is still room for further improvement and we will keep striving to increase sustainable free cash flow* and distributions to shareholders.”

Shell has completed the sale of a package of UK North Sea assets to Chrysaor for a total of up to $3.8bn, including an initial consideration of $3.0bn and a payment of up to $600m between 2018-2021 subject to commodity price, with potential further payments of up to $180m for future discoveries. This sale was announced on 31 January 2017 and has an effective date of 1 July 2016. Completion follows receipt of all necessary regulatory and partner approvals.

Royal Dutch Shell plc (Shell), through its affiliates, has completed the sale of its entire Gabon onshore oil and gas interests to Assala Energy Holdings Ltd. (Assala Energy) a portfolio company of The Carlyle Group (CG: NASDAQ), for a total of USD $628 million including amount equivalent to interest.

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: APC) announced its third-quarter 2017 results, reporting a net loss attributable to common stockholders of $699 million, or $1.27 per share (diluted). These results include certain items typically excluded by the investment community in published estimates. In total, these items increased the net loss by $272 million, or $0.50 per share (diluted), on an after-tax basis.(1) Net cash provided by operating activities in the third quarter of 2017 was $639 million.

Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $60.55 per barrel at 0655 GMT, 10 cents or 0.15 percent above their last settlement and near their highest level since July 2015. They have risen more than 36 percent since from 2017-lows marked in June. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 11 cents, or 0.2 percent, at $54.01 a barrel.