A balanced global crude oil market likely will remain elusive into 2018 because so many underlying dynamics have changed in the last 10 years. The outlook is worse for LNG because markets are saturated, prices are depressed, and economics are unfavorable.

The July light, sweet crude contract on NYMEX climbed 34¢ on May 23 to close at $51.47/bbl. The August contract rose 32¢ to settle at $51.72/bbl. The natural gas price for June fell 11¢ to a rounded $3.22/MMbtu. The Henry Hub cash gas price was $3.20/MMbtu, down 1¢. The Brent crude contract for July on London’s ICE gained 28¢ to $54.15/bbl. The August contract was up 30¢ to $54.41/bbl. The June gas oil contract held unchanged at $479/tonne. OPEC’s basket of crudes on May 23 settled at $51.34/bbl, down 20¢.

Russia itself is now slightly overcomplying with its commitment to cut 300,000 b/d of oil production from October levels, having achieved a 310,000 b/d cut since the beginning of the month.

Brent crude LCOc1 ended a run of four days of consecutive gains to trade 36 cents lower at $53.51 per barrel at 0831 GMT. U.S. light crude CLc1 was down 33 cents at $50.80.

Brent crude gained 48 cents o $54.09 a barrel by 1043 GMT (6:43 a.m. ET), with U.S. light crude up 47 cents at $50.80.

Говоря о задачах, стоящих перед российской энергетикой на долгосрочную перспективу, первый замглавы ведомства отметил, что стратегически важно сохранить лидирующую роль страны на мировых рынках. «Учитывая глобальные тенденции развития и появления технологий, формирующих основу для «энергетики будущего», уже сейчас нам необходимо целенаправленно формировать новые точки развития российского ТЭК, чтобы не только удержать лидерские позиции России на мировых энергетических рынках в традиционных для нас нишах, но и стать лидерами на новых направлениях», – подчеркнул он.

IMF - advancing decisively on the structural reform agenda to improve growth potential and rebalance growth towards non-commodity sectors.

Saudi Arabia will go into the meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC producers in Vienna on May 25 determined to maximize its oil revenue through high prices, even if it must make large production cuts in return.

Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) earned about $433 billion in net oil export revenues in 2016, the lowest since 2004. In real dollar terms, the 2016 revenue represents a 15% decline from the $509 billion earned in 2015, mainly because of the fall in average annual crude oil prices and, to a lesser extent, because of decreases in OPEC net oil exports.

U.S. Rig Count is up 497 rigs from last year's count of 404, with oil rigs up 402, gas rigs up 95, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged. Canadian Rig Count is up 41 rigs from last year's count of 44, with oil rigs up 20, gas rigs up 22, and miscellaneous rigs down 1 to 0.

Brent crude LCOc1 was up 28 cents, or 0.5 percent, at $52.79 at 0630 GMT. The contract earlier rose to the highest since April 21 and is on track for a nearly 4 percent climb this week, its second week of gains. U.S. crude oil CLc1 was up 29 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $49.64 a barrel, highest since April 26. The contract is also heading for a weekly increase of almost 4 percent.

Algerian energy minister Noureddine Boutarfa said Thursday he believes there is a consensus among countries participating in the OPEC/non-OPEC oil production cut deal regarding the necessity to extend the agreement by nine months through March 2018.

Total petroleum deliveries in April moved up by 1.7 percent from April 2016 to average 19.6 million barrels per day. These were the highest April deliveries in nine years, since 2008. Compared with March, total domestic petroleum deliveries, a measure of U.S. petroleum demand, decreased 0.3 percent. For year to date, total domestic petroleum deliveries moved up slightly by 0.1 percent compared to the same period last year to average 19.4 million barrels per day.

The recent steps to increase the transparency of fiscal policy through the publication of the Fiscal Balance Program and the First Quarter Budget Report are very welcome. This greater transparency will help private businesses and investors better plan their investment and employment decisions.

Preliminary production figures for April 2017 show an average daily production of 2 111 000 barrels of oil, NGL and condensate, which is an decrease of 38 000 barrels per day (approx. 2 percent) compared to March.