OPEC, for some quiet moments..

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Oil markets were happy to hear that summer isn’t over just yet, as the U.S. government reported another decline in crude and gasoline stockpiles. Futures in New York gained 1.2% after the Energy Information Administration said America’s crude inventories shrank for an eighth straight week, with gasoline supplies also falling. Price gains have been largely undercut by production increases in past weeks.

Oil climbs as stockpile drop allays worries over summer's end

Sizable year-over-year improvements in the rig count, drilling permits, and the value of Texas-produced crude oil and natural gas, along with renewed industry employment growth combined to push the Texas Petro Index upward in July to 176.9, the eighth straight monthly increase since a punishing 24-month contraction, which ended in November 2016 with a revised TPI of 149.2. (Monthly TPI values were revised modestly over the entire history of the analysis, due to a shift in the way industry employment estimates are factored into the calculation of the TPI.)

Texas oil producers driving oil markets, leaving OPEC confounded

Despite a slowdown in the number of rigs being added in the shale basins, output targets will be met or exceeded as producers are adding to their hedged positions, according to ESAI Energy’s recently released North America Watch. Total 2017 shale output will average 5.2 MMbpd, 580,000 bpd higher than last year. Producers will seek to increase their hedges for 2018, but will need to cover their full-cycle costs for sustainable growth. Even with a slowdown in rig count, shale production, led by the Permian basin, will rise roughly 450,000 bpd to average 5.6 MMbpd in 2018. Hedging will increase and support further growth if the forward curve for WTI moves over $50.

Shale producers are dropping rigs and adding hedges, ESAI Energy says

Total agreed to buy the oil and gas unit of A.P. Moller-Maersk, the French company’s biggest acquisition since 1999 and another sign of the accelerating pace of energy deals after a long downturn. Total will pay Maersk with $4.95 billion of its own shares and assume $2.5 billion of the Copenhagen-based company’s debt, according to a statement on Monday. The full transaction value of $7.45 billion is above what some analysts were expecting and Maersk shares jumped as much as 5.7% following the announcement.

Total chases growth with $5-billion purchase of Maersk