New Zealand Oil & Gas Ltd. (NZOG) has now taken full control of Cue Energy Resources Ltd. after having launched a hostile takeover the Melbourne-based Cue nearly 2 years ago. Source: News

The Tullow Oil PLC-operated Erut-1 well on Block 13T in northern Kenya has discovered a gross oil interval of 55 m with 25 m of net oil pay at a depth of 700 m. The overall oil column for the field is considered to be 100-125 m. Source: News

State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) subsidiary SOCAR GPC has let a contract to Axens SA, Rueil-Malmaison, France, to provide technology for a butene unit at its proposed grassroots gas processing and petrochemical complex to be built in Garadagh, Azerbaijan, 15 km south of Baku. Source: News

US Rep. Ryan Zinke said he would work to have more federal land management decisions reached outside of Washington, DC, as a product of closer collaboration with states and stakeholders if he is confirmed as the next US Secretary of the Interior. Source: News

Light, sweet crude prices gained slightly on the New York market on Jan. 17 as trading resumed after the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Jan. 16. But the US benchmark fell in early Jan. 18 trading on reports of a strengthening dollar and expectations that US producers will increase unconventional oil production. Source: News

Crude oil output from the seven major US onshore producing regions is expected to rise 41,000 b/d in February to 4.748 million b/d, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration. Source: News

Twenty-nine companies have been awarded 56 new production licenses on the Norwegian continental shelf as part of Norway’s Awards in Predefined Areas (APA) 2016 licensing round. Thirty-three companies were eligible to apply for 148,014 sq km. Source: News