The U.S. current account deficit, which reflects the combined balances on trade in goods and services and income flows between U.S. residents and residents of other countries, narrowed by $8.0 billion, or 5.9 percent, to $128.2 billion in the second quarter of 2019, according to statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). The revised first quarter deficit was $136.2 billion.

Saudi Arabia on Wednesday announced it has joined the International Maritime Security Construct to secure the Mideast's waterways.

The alliance protects the interests of its members and their merchant ships when passing through maritime corridors. Its operation area covers the Strait of Hormuz, Bab Al Mandab, the Sea of Oman and the Arabian Gulf.

Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh stressed the non-political nature of oil, saying the US was using oil as a weapon which was not the right approach.

The share of U.S. total energy consumption that originated from fossil fuels has fallen from its peak of 94% in 1966 to 80% in 2018. The total amount of fossil fuels consumed in the United States has also fallen from its peak of 86 quads in 2007. Since then, coal consumption decreased by 10 quads and petroleum by 2 quads, more than offsetting a 7 quad increase in natural gas consumption.

ROSATOM and the Ministry of Energy and Mines of the Dominican Republic signed a Memorandum of cooperation in the field of peaceful use of nuclear energy.

EDF and Westinghouse are looking at SMRs as a way of standardizing reactor construction after struggling with years of delay and billions of dollars of cost overruns on their big nuclear reactors, which have capacities upwards of 1,000 MW.

Consistent with its statutory mandate, the Committee seeks to foster maximum employment and price stability. In light of the implications of global developments for the economic outlook as well as muted inflation pressures, the Committee decided to lower the target range for the federal funds rate to 1-3/4 to 2 percent.

The US made another request to import-dependent Japan to join the coalition, and leaders are expected to discuss it at the UN General Assembly in New York next week.

U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts that natural gas-fired electricity generation in the United States will increase by 6% in 2019 and by 2% in 2020. EIA also forecasts that generation from wind power will increase by 6% in 2019 and by 14% in 2020.

Industrial production rose 0.6 percent in August after declining 0.1 percent in July. Manufacturing production increased 0.5 percent, more than reversing its decrease in July. Factory output has increased 0.2 percent per month over the past four months after having decreased 0.5 percent per month during the first four months of the year.

U.S. EIA - Crude oil production from the major US onshore regions is forecast to increase 74,000 b/d month-over-month in September from 8,769 to 8,843 thousand barrels/day, gas production to increase 469 million cubic feet/day from 81,893 to 82,362 million cubic feet/day .

U.S. natural gas production continued to increase in August, setting a new daily production record of 92.8 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) on August 19, 2019,

Russia exported 248 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2018, mostly via pipeline to Europe. In the next decade, its liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports will almost triple to 68 bcm as the Yamal LNG project reaches full capacity and Arctic 2 LNG comes online (plus two smaller projects).

A project to demonstrate the production of hydrogen in integrated energy systems at US nuclear power plants is one of three selected by the US Department of Energy (DOE) to receive a share of USD15 million in its latest announcement of project selectees.