BAKER HUGHES A GE - The worldwide rig count for February 2018 was 2,271, up 96 from the 2,175 counted in January 2018, and up 244 from the 2,027 counted in February 2017.

BAKER HUGHES A GE - The worldwide rig count for December 2017 was 2,089, up 32 from the 2,057 counted in November 2017, and up 317 from the 1,772 counted in December 2016.

EIA - Crude oil production from the major US onshore regions is forecast to increase 94,000 b/d month-over-month in January to 6,408 million b/d, gas production to increase 764 million cubic feet/day to 63,030 million cubic feet/day .

ROSATOM - On December 10, 2017, the construction start ceremony took place at the Akkuyu NPP site under a limited construction licence issued by the Turkish Atomic Energy Agency (TAEK). Director General of the ROSATOM Alexey Likhachev, and First Deputy Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources of the Turkish Republic, Fatih Donmez, took part in the ceremony.

ROSATOM - Cairo, Egypt - On December 11, 2017, Director General of ROSATOM Alexey Likhachev and Egypt’s Minister of Electricity And Renewable Energy Mohamed Shaker signed the Notices to proceed the contracts for the construction of the El Dabaa nuclear power plant.

LETTERONE - BASF and L1 Energy, the energy investment arm of LetterOne, announce their intention to merge their oil and gas subsidiaries.

PENNENERGY - Germany's Siemens says it has signed contracts worth some 700 million euros ($824 million) to build two gas-powered electricity plants in Libya.

WNN - Construction of the Iter fusion reactor, being built at Cadarache in the south of France, is now 50% complete, the Iter Organisation has announced. The reactor - construction of which began in 2010 - is scheduled to achieve first plasma in 2025.

PLATTS - Taking into account the nominated volume for Friday, Gazprom will have exported 179.8 Bcm to what it calls the Far Abroad -- Europe and Turkey, but not the countries of the former Soviet Union -- higher than last year's then record high of 179.3 Bcm.

“This is for sure a complicated project,” Putin said at a ceremony attended by the project partners and the energy minister of Saudi Arabia. “But those who started this project took a risk, and the risk was justified, and they succeeded.”

Russia has three oil export terminals on its Arctic coast. Shipments began from Lukoil PJSC's 240,000 barrel a day Varandey terminal in 2008. It now handles about 150,000 daily barrels from nearby fields. Gazprom Neft's Prirazlomnoye field produces approximately 80,000 barrels a day, with a target capacity of 130,000. The same company's 170,000 barrel a day Arctic Gate terminal started operations this year and exports about 150,000 barrels a day from the Novoportovskoye field. Crude from all three terminals is shipped in shuttle tankers to Murmansk, from where cargoes are sent on larger vessels to Europe.

Gas from Zohr will also help ease pressure on the economy of the most populous Arab nation, which has been plagued by a shortage of foreign currency since a 2011 uprising. Zohr, which Eni discovered in August 2015, has an estimated reserve of about 850 billion cubic meters of natural gas in place.

US commercial crude oil inventories, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, decreased by 5.6 million bbl for the week ended Dec. 1 compared with the previous week. The latest estimate is 448.1 million bbl, which puts oil supplies in the upper range for this time of year, the US Energy Information Administration said.

REUTERS - State oil company Saudi Aramco last week raised prices for all crude oil grades to Asia in January.

U.S. BLS - Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 228,000 in November, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment continued to trend up in professional and business services, manufacturing, and health care.