COVID-19 has turned life upside down. Birthdays are celebrated over Zoom or from the end of a driveway, bars and restaurants stand empty, and many streets are eerily quiet. Yet, we carry on – largely due to the great efforts of health and other frontline workers – and also thanks to our critical energy infrastructure and those that build and maintain it.

Baker Hughes reported on Friday that the number of oil and gas rigs in the US fell again this week by 17, falling to 284, with the total oil and gas rigs sitting at 691 fewer than this time last year.

Aging offshore oil wells that once brought market prominence to Europe, the U.S. Gulf and Brazil are increasingly money losers that companies want shut down amid low oil prices and a struggling global economy. But the effort won’t be cheap.

Saudi Arabia made some of the biggest price increases for crude exports in at least two decades, doubling down on its strategy to bolster the oil market after OPEC+ producers extended historic output cuts.

On the surface, it’s the old OPEC strategy of production cuts. When the cartel and its allies meet on Saturday, they are set to extend their output curbs for an extra month into July in an effort to consolidate the price recovery.

Nigeria said it reaffirms its commitment to the OPEC+ deal struck on Saturday and “subscribes to the concept of compensation” from members pumping above their quota.

Early signs of a shale rebound are becoming evident as crude prices emerge from their dramatic collapse earlier this year.

Natural gas producers have had little to cheer about over the past few months after prices sunk to multi-year lows amid a huge oversupply and warm weather. The slowdown could not have come at a worse time for the burgeoning U.S. LNG industry, which has experienced explosive growth over the past decade that put the nation on the cusp of becoming the world's largest LNG exporter ahead of Qatar and Australia. But now, U.S. LNG producers can afford to smile after nabbing a key customer: Turkey.

OPEC+ hopes to reduce global storage volumes with their production cuts, and hopes to extend them through at least, the summer. OPEC’s regular meeting in Vienna is coming up and of course the Russians will be invited as they hold the key to realizing the 9.7 mm BOPD cut now in effect through June.

Siemens and Equinor have signed a framework agreement for the provision of safety and automation systems (SAS) for multiple oil and gas installations on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS).