Colombia's government is moving ahead with its plan to sell assets owned...
Colombia's government is moving ahead with its plan to sell assets owned by the state oil company Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) in the US Permian Basin, just as the joint venture with Occidental Petroleum ramped up production to 116,000 boe/d, as of Q2 2025.
US private equity firm Carlyle is reportedly considering buying the foreign assets of Russian oil major Lukoil (MCOX:LKOH), worth some $22 billion, planning to apply for a license from the Trump administration to buy the assets before beginning due diligence.
The rig count in the Permian Basin was up 2this week, the latest count Friday by Baker Hughes shows, with 253 rigs active in the region. A year ago, 303 rigs were active in the region. Oklahomalost 1 rig, currently at 41 rigs. New Mexico (+2) and Louisiana (+1) were the only two states with positive gains.
Nationally, the total oil and gas rig count is up by 1 from last week to 549 rigs. A year ago, 584 rigs were active. The count shows that 417 rigs sought oil, up 3 from the previous week, and 125 explored for natural gas, down 3 from the previous week. The count also shows seven miscellaneous rigs,up 1 from last week.
The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981. It bottomed out in August of 2020 at 244.
The regional benchmark Plains-West Texas Intermediate Posting ended Friday at $56.57 per barrel, up 34 cents from last Friday’s close. National benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude ended at $60.09 per barrel, up 34 cents from the previous week.
The Chinese government yesterday announced that a state-run mining group has unearthed the largest gold deposit found in over seven decades. The site is estimated to yield roughly 1,444 tonnes of gold, worth about $193B at current prices.
The news comes amid a recent surge in gold prices, with the cost per ounce hitting an all-time high of over $4.3K last month. The World Bank expects gold prices to rise about 42% this year, marking the strongest annual increase since the late 1970s. While gold's value has steadily climbed for several years, the current spike has been largely attributed to the increased accessibility of gold exchange-traded funds and to emerging markets seeking to diversify their holdings amid global economic uncertainty.
China has been gradually unloading US Treasurys over the past decade, with holdings falling to $730.7B in September—the lowest level since 2008. Meanwhile, the country produced over 377 tonnes of gold last year, a 0.56% increase from 2023.
Switzerland scores 15% tariff in trade deal with US. The...
Switzerland scores 15% tariff in trade deal with US. The two countries said yesterday that they’d reached a deal to slash the Matterhorn-high 39% tariffs Trump unexpectedly slapped on Swiss goods like chocolate, gold, and pharmaceuticals, down to the 15% level that EU countries are also facing. Under the terms of the agreement, Switzerland will invest $200 billion in the US by the end of 2028. The deal came together after billionaire Swiss executives bearing an engraved gold bar and Rolex clock came to Washington to personally lobby President Trump after government negotiations stalled.
The Justice Department will investigate ties between convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and prominent Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton, in addition to major banks, at the request of President Trump—whose own relationship with the late financier was back in the news this week due to the public revelation of Epstein’s emails discussing him, as well as his efforts to convince Congress not to vote for the DOJ to release all of its files about the case.
Disney and YouTube TV ended their two-week standoff yesterday, making a deal and restoring ABC and ESPN to the streaming service.
About 23 million people were under flood watches in California yesterday as an atmospheric river was poised to dump a month’s worth of rain on the Los Angeles area in one day.
John Beam, the Laney College football coach who was featured in Netflix’s Last Chance U, has died after being shot on campus, police said Friday. A suspect was arrested.
The Trump administration scrapped a proposed Biden-era rule change that would have required airlines to compensate passengers for lengthy flight delays.
Berkshire Hathaway bought a chunk of Alphabet stock, making it the Warren Buffett-run firm’s 10th-largest equity holding at the end of September.
The September jobs report, which was delayed by the government shutdown, will be published on Thursday. Better late than never, but government data drops will probably be funky for a while longer.
