The parties confirmed their intention to create a joint venture for gas and condensate offshore production in Venezuela as part of Mariscal Sucre project. The signed document provides for performing of additional joint research aimed at selection of optimum plan of this project implementation.

From June 2014 to May 2015, when the oil and gas prices as measured by the PPI fell by 49%, the PPI by industry classification showed the following changes: - Rates for drilling activities, which primarily represent service fees for contractors to drill oil and gas wells, declined by 19.6%. - Rates for support activities, which include the surveying, cementing, casing, and otherwise treating wells, declined by 1.4%. - The price of sands primarily used for hydraulic fracturing declined 12.5%.

U.S. Rig Count is down 2 rigs from last week to 857, with oil rigs down 4 to 631, gas rigs up 2 to 223, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 3. U.S. Rig Count is down 1001 rigs from last year at 1858, with oil rigs down 914, gas rigs down 88, and miscellaneous rigs up 1. The U.S. Offshore rig count is 27, down 2 rigs from last week, and down 32 rigs year over year.

Rosneft and BP today signed several agreements strengthening the long term strategic relationship between the two companies, at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

Rosneft and China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina) signed at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum a contract for crude oil supplies to the Chinese company.

Total S.A. and Rosneft signed at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum an agreement, confirming the execution of a sale and purchase agreement with regard to the 16.67% share in PCK Raffinerie GmbH. The document was signed by Rosneft Chairman of the Management Board Igor Sechin and Chief Executive Officer of Total Patrick Pouyanné.

US Arctic oil and gas policies should recognize the industry’s extensive global Far North experience and technology, American Petroleum Institute officials said. “If we don’t use this knowledge, other Arctic nations will move to the forefront of energy development there,” API Upstream Operations Director Erik Milito told reporters at a June 12 briefing.

Deepwater oil projects and complex gas facilities worth around $200 billion have been cancelled or put on hold worldwide in recent months due to the sharp drop in oil prices over the past year, consultancy Ernst and Young said.

Large cuts in the energy industry have made news for the first two quarters of 2015. Halliburton cut 9,000 jobs in six months and reported a loss of $643 million in Q1 of 2015. Schlumberger reported even deeper cuts that tallied around 11,000 in efforts to reduce personnel employment 15 percent when compared to the third quarter of 2014.

BP could be close to a $700 million deal with Russia’s Rosneft for a 20% stake in a Siberian oilfield, the company led by Igor Sechin further showed how national companies can cope with sanctions, maintaining ties with Western companies and progressively switching to Asian markets.

Norwegian oil and gas company Statoil says it will lay off up to 1,500 staff and 500 consultants by the end of to slash costs.

"Uncertainty is the rule of the game in this industry," the head of France's Total Patrick Pouyanne said this month. "We are in the long-term business. This is why at Total we are keen to maintain our commitment to Russia."

Europe’s biggest oil groups are extending business deals with their Russian energy partners despite this month’s EU vote to continue imposing sanctions, highlighting how western companies are learning to live with the restrictions placed on Moscow.

China’s ambassador to the Philippines has suggested that the two countries sit down for talks on the most squeamish territorial dispute in Asia. The question of who controls the fishery-rich, 3.5 million-square-kilometer South China Sea, also full of oil and natural gas as well as major world shipping lanes, could proceed from military preparations to a calm negotiating room. The two governments – both unusually aggressive in asserting rival claims to the sea — might be able to work something out. The Philippines is talking now to Taiwan to agree on law enforcement in their own overlapping waters.

U.S. Rig Count is down 9 rigs from last week to 859, with oil rigs down 7 to 635, gas rigs down 1 to 221, and miscellaneous rigs down 1 to 3. U.S. Rig Count is down 995 rigs from last year at 1854, with oil rigs down 907, gas rigs down 89, and miscellaneous rigs up 1. The U.S. Offshore rig count is 29, up 2 rigs from last week, and down 30 rigs year over year.