REUTERS -Speaking at the European Gas Conference in Vienna, Gazprom Chairman Viktor Zubkov said the company’s share of the European gas market, where it generates the majority of its revenue, rose last year to a record high of more than 35 percent, from about 33 percent in 2016.

BLOOMBERG - With crude back at $70 a barrel, and a petroleum industry that cut costs to the bone after the oil crash, the stage is now set for another boom. But the good times could hamper Prime Minister Erna Solberg’s main aim of moving the economy away from a reliance on oil. As optimism now returns to the economy, signs of real progress on that project are few.

API - Total petroleum deliveries in December rose to 20.7 million barrels per day. This was the strongest December monthly demand in the last decade.

BLOOMBERG - The expansion of Russia’s gas pipeline to Germany under the Baltic Sea, which bypasses a number of east European nations, will allow the Kremlin to use energy as a “political tool,” U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in Warsaw.

BEA - Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 2.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017 (table 1), according to the "advance" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the third quarter, real GDP increased 3.2 percent.

BAKER HUGHES A GE - U.S. Rig Count is up 11 rigs from last week to 947, with oil rigs up 12 to 759, gas rigs down 1 to 188, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged. Canada Rig Count is up 13 rigs from last week to 338, with oil rigs up 12 to 220 and gas rigs up 1 to 118.

REUTERS - “China hopes to work with all parties to build a ‘Polar Silk Road’ through developing the Arctic shipping routes,” the paper, issued by the State Council Information Office, said.

REUTERS - U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry told oil super-powers Russia and Saudi Arabia he believed U.S. shale oil boom would not become a spoiler for oil markets because new production would be absorbed by fast rising global demand.

BLOOMBERG - “We’ve gotten to a point where we don’t care,” whether prices will be sustained at the level that they have recently risen to, Adeosun said during an interview in her office in the capital, Abuja. “We’ve been able to balance our budget at $45-$46 per barrel and we’ve got to learn to live comfortably at that level.”

NPD - Preliminary production figures for December 2017 show an average daily production of 1 932 000 barrels of oil, NGL and condensate, which is an increase of 26 000 barrels per day compared to November.

BLOOMBERG - Mexico, Chile and Peru offer strong potential for growth in renewable energy, and governments in the region are courting international investors to help diversify the electricity mix.

BAKER HUGHES A GE - U.S. Rig Count is down 3 rigs from last week to 936, with oil rigs down 5 to 747, gas rigs up 2 to 189, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged. Canada Rig Count is up 49 rigs from last week to 325, with oil rigs up 23 to 208 and gas rigs up 26 to 117.

BLOOMBERG - Russia’s oil and gas index may gain another 20 to 30 percent this year as investors have yet to price in Brent at $70 per barrel, according to Sberbank CIB. "The sell side is assuming an average oil price of $55 per barrel for 2018,” the bank’s analysts said in a Jan. 15 note. "Should the oil price stay at the current level, we will see a wave of earnings upgrades.”

EIA - EIA forecasts that total fossil fuels production in the United States will average almost 73 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) in 2018, the highest level of production on record. EIA expects total fossil fuel production to then set another record in 2019, with production forecast to rise to 75 quadrillion Btu.

U.S.DT - The sum total in November of all net foreign acquisitions of long-term securities, short-term U.S. securities, and banking flows was a monthly net TIC inflow of $33.8 billion. Of this, net foreign private inflows were $49.7 billion, and net foreign official outflows were $15.9 billion.