“We have been producing oil and gas in Norway for nearly 50 years and we are still not halfway done. Vast volumes of oil and gas have been discovered on the Norwegian shelf that are still waiting to be produced. We want companies with the ability and willingness to utilise new knowledge and advanced technology. This will yield profitable production for many decades in the future,” says Ingrid Sølvberg, Director of development and operations in the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate.

Crude oil production from the seven major US onshore producing regions is forecast to rise 127,000 b/d month-over-month in June to average 5.475 million b/d. Gas production from the seven regions is forecast to gain 684 MMcfd month-over-month in June to 51.685 bcfd.

U.S. Rig Count is up 509 rigs from last year's count of 424, with oil rigs up 410, gas rigs up 100, and miscellaneous rigs down 1. Canadian Rig Count is up 90 rigs from last year's count of 69, with oil rigs up 63, gas rigs up 28, and miscellaneous rigs down 1 to 0.

U.S. Rig Count is up 513 rigs from last year's count of 414, with oil rigs up 413, gas rigs up 100, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged. Canadian Rig Count is up 67 rigs from last year's count of 65, with oil rigs up 45 and gas rigs up 22.

Brent crude oil LCOc1 was up 48 cents at $48.34 a barrel by 12:17 p.m. EDT. U.S. crude CLc1 was 39 cents higher at $46.04 a barrel. U.S. crude and Brent benchmarks remained on track for weekly declines of more than 3 percent, pressured by big U.S. inventories and heavy worldwide flows.

At the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), the July 2017 contract price fell 5¢ from $3.071/MMBtu last Wednesday to $3.020/MMBtu yesterday.

Brent crude LCOc1 was up 43 cents by 0900 GMT at $48.49 a barrel, having fallen 4 percent the day before, while U.S. crude futures CLc1 rose 38 cents to $46.10 a barrel.

The United States remained the world's top producer of petroleum and natural gas hydrocarbons in 2016 for the fifth straight year despite production declines for both petroleum and natural gas relative to their 2015 levels. The United States has been the world's top producer of natural gas since 2009, when U.S. natural gas production surpassed that of Russia, and it has been the world's top producer of petroleum hydrocarbons since 2013, when its production exceeded Saudi Arabia’s.

U.S. crude production will average more than 10 million barrels a day for the first time in 2018, breaking a record almost five decades old and keeping prices from rising as much as previously estimated, government forecasts showed Tuesday.

China imported 37.2 million tonnes or 8.76 million barrels per day of crude oil last month, up 15 percent from a year earlier and nearly 8 percent from April, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.

OPEC’s crude oil production increased by 270,000 bpd in May over April, to stand at 32.12mn bpd – the highest level since January this year

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) met on May 25, 2017, and announced an extension to production cuts that were originally set to end this month. The agreed-upon OPEC crude oil production target remains at 32.5 million barrels per day (b/d) through the end of the first quarter of 2018. EIA now forecasts OPEC members’ crude oil production to average 32.3 million b/d in 2017 and 32.8 million b/d in 2018, about 0.2 million b/d and 0.4 million b/d, respectively, lower than previously forecast. However, continuing production growth in many non-OPEC countries is expected to moderate the pace of global liquid fuels inventory draws in 2017 and lead to a small inventory build in 2018.

Brent crude prices LCOc1 were at $49.70 per barrel at 1351 GMT, down 42 cents. Brent is about 8 percent below its open on May 25, when OPEC and other producers agreed to extend oil output cuts through to the first quarter of 2018. U.S. light crude prices CLc1 were at $47.69 per barrel, down 50 cents.

EIA forecasts Brent spot prices to average $53/b in 2017 and $56/b in 2018.

The US Energy Information Administration lowered its crude-oil price forecast and raised its US production outlook for 2018. The lower price forecast reflects the possibility of a return to modest oversupply in global oil markets in 2018.