The pullout comes as crude oil prices have plummeted to less than half their June 2014 levels, forcing oil companies to slash spending. For Shell and ConocoPhillips, the decision to abandon Arctic acreage was formalized just before a May 1 due date to pay the U.S. government millions of dollars in rent to keep holdings in the Chukchi Sea north of Alaska.

The rout in crude prices is snowballing into one of the biggest avalanches in the history of corporate America, with 59 oil and gas companies now bankrupt after this week's filings for creditor protection by Midstates Petroleum MPOY.PK and Ultra Petroleum UPL.NL.

US commercial crude oil inventories, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, increased 2.8 million bbl for the week ended Apr. 29 compared with the previous week. The US Energy Information Administration estimated a total of 543.4 million bbl, which is historically high for this time of year.

China’s falling oil output and sliding U.S. production may help rebalance a market struggling to recover from the worst price crash in a generation

American LNG will be part of the approach towards diversification of sources of gas in Europe, in contrast to projects like Nord Stream 2 or the revived South Stream, which she said are not real sources of diversification.

Halliburton’s chief executive has blamed an increasingly difficult US regulatory climate for the collapse of his company’s $28bn bid for rival Baker Hughes, which was abandoned on Sunday.

U.S. Rig Count is down 11 rigs from last week to 420, with oil rigs down 11 to 332, gas rigs down 1 to 87, and miscellaneous rigs up 1 to 1. Canadian Rig Count is down 3 rigs from last week to 37, with oil rigs down 2 to 10, gas rigs down 1 to 26, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 1.

“Expanding LNG exports will create American jobs, grow our economy, strengthen the global marketplace and bolster strategic alliances abroad. U.S. LNG exports not only provide international consumers with greater choice, but also help them break dependence on nations that use their energy resources as a diplomatic and political weapon.

Canada's National Energy Board (NEB) projects that both Canada's natural gas production and its domestic natural gas consumption will increase through the next decade. Exports of natural gas by pipeline to the United States are expected to continue to decline. The planned construction of liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals on Canada's western coast, which would send LNG exports to Asian markets by 2019, plays a key role in maintaining Canada's overall natural gas exports.

U.S. Rig Count is down 9 rigs from last week to 431, with oil rigs down 8 to 343, and gas rigs down 1 to 88. Canadian Rig Count remains unchanged at 40, with oil rigs up 2 to 12, and gas rigs down 3 to 27.

Industrial production—a broad gauge of output across U.S. factories, mines and power plants—decreased a seasonally adjusted 0.6% in March from the prior month, the Federal Reserve said Friday. Output has fallen for six of the past seven months. From a year earlier, industrial production decreased 2% in March. Manufacturing output, the largest component of the index, fell 0.3% in March.

U.S. Rig Count is down 3 rigs from last week to 440, with oil rigs down 3 to 351, and gas rigs remain unchanged at 89. Canadian Rig Count is down 1 rig from last week to 40, with oil rigs up 2 to 10, and gas rigs down 3 to 30.

Gas output from the top seven shale deposits will fall by 1.1 percent to 45.93 billion cubic feet a day from April, the biggest percentage decline since March 2013. The retreat is led by the oil-rich Eagle Ford deposit in Texas and the Niobrara shale in Colorado and neighboring states, where gas is pumped as a byproduct of crude extraction.

Crude oil production in May from the seven major US shale regions is expected to fall 114,000 b/d month-over-month to 4.84 million b/d, according to the US Energy Information Administration’s latest Drilling Productivity Report (DPR).

The squeeze puts further pressure on the shale industry to sell assets, cut jobs and drilling and shrink capital spending. It also raises the risk that more companies will tip into bankruptcy.