World's top crude exporter Saudi Arabia cut April prices of light crude it sells to Asia for the first time in three months in a bid to shore up demand in an oversupplied market, trade sources said.

Global benchmark Brent LCOc1 was up 19 cents at $55.27 a barrel at 0941 GMT, recovering some of Thursday's losses that amounted to more than 2 percent. WTI futures CLc1 traded at $52.69 a barrel, up 8 cents on the previous close.

Oil closed at the lowest level in more than three weeks as record U.S. crude inventories were seen jeopardizing OPEC’s efforts to drain a global surplus.

The company plans to spend nearly $5.5 billion drilling in Texas, New Mexico and North Dakota. Exxon is hoping to take advantage of technological advancements and lower costs of doing business in the shale.

U.S. Rig Count is up 267 rigs from last year's count of 489, with oil rigs up 217, gas rigs up 49, and miscellaneous rigs up 1. Canadian Rig Count is up 206 rigs from last year's count of 129, with oil rigs up 147 and gas rigs up 59.

Kazakhstan has for the first time shipped Kashagan crude in the form of Siberian Light blend from the Russian port of Novorossiisk, the Kazakh state pipeline company has said, amid a surge in Siberian Light exports.

Myanmar, one of the oldest oil and gas industries in the region and a country which exported its first crude oil centuries ago, is again emerging as a bright spot for overseas investors after sanctions, which were imposed on the country during a long period of military rule and political unrest, were lifted in 2012.

The NYMEX April natural gas futures contract settled Friday at $2.827/MMBtu, up 2.3 cents, continuing a steady rise since February 27 despite an abnormal February injection to gas storage stocks and demand hovering 7 Bcf/d below the five-year average.

Brent crude futures dropped 47 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $55.43 a barrel as of 0749 GMT after settling 1.5 percent higher in the previous session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 47 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $52.86 a barrel after closing the previous session up 1.4 percent.

Александр Новак прогнозирует стоимость эталонной корзины Brent в 2017 году на уровне $55-60 за баррель, тогда как Urals будет торговаться с дисконтом в $2-3 за баррель к североморскому эталону.

Арктика — это наш стратегический ресурс в будущем, в этом регионе сосредоточено порядка 260 млрд т условного топлива, или 60% извлекаемых ресурсов углеводородов в России.

Ukrainian state monopoly supplier Naftogaz Ukrainy has issued letters of credit under the loan agreement with Citi and Deutsche Bank secured by the World Bank. They total €220mn ($231mn) and will be used this month to buy gas from European suppliers selected through the World Bank’s auctions, it said March 1. It is planned to buy up to 1.1bn m³, with payment due in April upon completion of the relevant gas deliveries to Ukraine.

Saudi Arabian Oil Co., as it is formally called, is considering investments of as much as $5 billion in renewable energy, part of the kingdom’s effort to reduce the amount of oil feeding domestic energy needs.

Министр поблагодарил своего саудовского коллегу за усилия по достижению успеха соглашения между странами ОПЕК и ведущими не-ОПЕКовскими производителями нефти по координации действий на нефтяном рынке. «Хотел бы еще раз поблагодарить в Вашем лице руководство Саудовской Аравии за решающий вклад в продвижение столь важного для мировой нефтяной индустрии и мировой экономики в целом процесса, способствующего восстановлению баланса спроса и предложения на рынке нефти и поддержанию инвестиционной привлекательности отрасли в долгосрочной перспективе», - заявил Александр Новак.

«Изменения топливно-энергетического баланса неизбежны, однако резких потрясений в ближайшие десятилетия мы не ждем – доля углеводородов может снизиться с 80% до 75%, при этом газ останется основным видом топлива и займет еще большую нишу. Таким образом, изменения мирового топливного баланса будут носить скорее эволюционный, а не революционный характер», - констатировал Александр Новак.

The Norwegian economy is slowly picking up after a two-year slowdown in its top industry, oil production, due to a halving of crude prices since mid-2014. In recent months, crude prices have risen and stabilised at around $55 per barrel.

Brent crude LCOc1 was down 3 cents at $55.98 a barrel as of 1020 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 was flat at $53.20. Both benchmarks have traded in negative and positive territory since the start of Asia trading.

Royal Dutch Shell plc ("Shell") today announces the signing of binding definitive agreements between SOPC Holdings East LLC (a U.S. downstream subsidiary of Shell) and Saudi Refining Inc. ("SRI") (a wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi Arabian Oil Company (“Saudi Aramco”)) on the separation of assets, liabilities and businesses of Motiva Enterprises LLC (“Motiva”), a 50/50 refining and marketing joint venture.

The worldwide rig count for February 2017 was 2,027, up 109 from the 1,918 counted in January 2017, and up 266 from the 1,761 counted in February 2016.

A significant, years-long oil supply crunch may be approaching due to insufficient investment in exploration and production, Hess CEO John Hess said Monday at IHS CERAWeek.