• Oil prices extended gains at press time after rising 1% in the previous session, as bullish forecasts of recovering demand outweighed concerns about the impact of rising COVID-19 cases in Brazil, India and Japan. Brent rose 89 cents, or 1.3%, to $68.16 a barrel, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was up 83 cents, or 1.3%, at $64.69 a barrel.
• Californian Governor Gavin Newsom will reportedly ban new hydraulic fracturing permits in the coming years as the state pushes to eliminate net greenhouse-gas emissions by 2045. His order to halt new permits by January 2024 follows calls from environmental groups for executive action after two Democratic state senators failed to pass legislation that would prohibit fracking altogether in 2023. California has shuttered a massive amount of natural gas-fired power generation in recent years, and in September Newsom announced a ban on sales of new gasoline-powered cars starting in 2035.
• Halliburton announced StrataXaminer, a new wireline logging service that helps operators acquire more accurate well data to better evaluate production potential. The tool delivers high-resolution images of the reservoir structure to identify bedding, fracture patterns, fault zones and potential flow barriers with increased accuracy.