Chevron (CVX) is one of the largest energy companies in the world and engages in several businesses like exploration and production of oil and natural gas, refining, transportation, trading and chemicals. The company competes with other established oil producers like Exxon Mobil (XOM), ConocoPhillips (COP), BP (BP) and Anadarko (APC). Our price estimate at Trefis for Chevron stands at $102, which is about 5% ahead of the market price.

Oil recently traded at $91.00 per barrel and many analysts are looking for $100 per barrel. Against that backdrop, global oil companies are ramping up exploration to record levels for 2011.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Barclays (BCS) estimates that spending on new wells, producing platforms and other energy infrastructure will total $490 billion in 2011, an increase of 11%.

OPEC, which is responsible for 35% of world's oil production, has left output quotas unchanged at 24.85 million barrels a day.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasts worldwide demand at 88.8 million barrels a day for 2011, up from 87.1 million bpd this year.

Oil has rallied 25% this year. OPEC profits are estimated to be higher by 35% to $750 billion. Recent oil prices have hovered between $80 to $90 per barrel.

OPEC's most recent report on global oil supplies said that the world has "no room" for more crude supplies.

OPEC lowered estimates for world demand and raised predictions for non-OPEC production. Here are the numbers:

• While world demand is forecast to rise by 940,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2010, this is 10,000 bpd lower than previously estimated.
• Non-OPEC production is set to rise by 640,000 bpd, up from 530,000.

Thursday morning, it was announced that British petroleum firm BP (BP) will pay $7 billion for a group of Brazilian assets held by American firm Devon Energy (DVN). In exchange, Devon will receive half of BP's Kirby assets in Alberta, Canada for $500 million.

BP believes the its entry into Brazil will "add a major position in another attractive deep-water basin." BP will dish out $7 billion for interests in 10 exploration blocks in Brazil, 240 leases in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico deep water, and a nearly 6% stake in an Azerbaijan development. As a result of the deal, BP will have complete control of the Kaskida field in the Gulf of Mexico.

Royal Dutch Shell's (RDS.A) profit fell a whopping 75% in the fourth quarter. Earnings came in at $1.18 billion.

Shell's profit margins were hit by slower fuel demand caused by the worldwide recession. There were also increased costs from refinery start ups in the Middle East and Asia.

OPEC oil ministers agreed to keep production unchanged. Saudi Arabia has made it clear that it does not want oil prices to fluctuate too much, fearing that it would stunt the fragile recovery of world economic growth. They want to keep prices in the $70 to $80 per barrel range.

The key problem for OPEC is adherence to output quotas. At present, member adherence is about 60%. Oil demand is on the weak side. Edward Meir of MF Global said: "We suspect the ensuing price bias will be to the downside."

You can tell the oil market's in rough shape when companies are drilling more to pull in smaller profits. This is the situation in which Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) finds itself, with lower energy prices pushing down the cash that comes through the door.

So, its revenue was up for the most recent quarter, but earnings were down. The $262 million that came to the bottom line is 61% lower than the profit for the same quarter the year before.

OPEC oil ministers want to see a stable U.S. dollar and higher oil prices before they start to increase investment. OPEC maintains that because oil is priced in U.S. dollars it wants the U.S. to keep the dollar stable.

But these are secondary problems. The main thorn in OPEC's side is Russia. Russia has overtaken Saudi Arabia as the world's biggest oil exporter.

Unlike OPEC that is trying to keep a lid on production, Russia has increased production to a record 10 million barrels per day. Russia and other non OPEC countries were not invited to attend the OPEC meeting.

The unemployment numbers just came out and showed that the U.S. economy lost 467,000 jobs last month. That was the trigger for the oil traders. Within a few minutes oil dropped $2.02 per barrel to $67.19 at 9:07 EDT.

Adding fuel to the decline was the report that gasoline stockpiles rose by 2.9 million barrels, but crude dropped 3.7 million barrels.

Given oil's recent run-up, at times it appears that all oil/natural gas plays have been bid-up, but Devon Energy (NYSE: DVN) hasn't and it's worth a review.

Devon's shares were rudely treated by the Street from mid-2008 to early-2009, following the collapse in oil prices. Some of it was justified, due to the large, likely decline in FY 2009 revenue stemming from crude's price collapse. But valuing DVN with a p/e of 6 or 7 is a tad low, given the company's assets, hence the Buy rating that has been generated here.