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Offshore drilling contractor Noble Corp. filed for bankruptcy with a plan to cut more than $3.4 billion of debt.

Oil is set to eke out a monthly gain, yet futures lost steam on July 31 amid threats that the market will soon become oversupplied.

Oil was propped up by the biggest decline in U.S. crude stockpiles this year, signaling a bright spot in a market weakened by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Oil declined as investors turned their focus to domestic supply, with expectations for another build in U.S. stockpiles.

In March and April, as oil prices plunged to their lowest in a generation, Norwegian energy giant Equinor ASA was busy doing the opposite of what oil companies usually do: pumping as much crude as possible underground into giant caverns on the nation’s North Sea coast.

Schlumberger Ltd. posted its weakest sales in 14 years and is cutting one-fifth of its workforce while warning that new waves of COVID-19 could derail the nascent recovery in global energy demand.

Oil climbed to the highest level since early March in London on July 21 as hopes for an economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis lifted financial markets.

Chevron Corp. agreed to buy Noble Energy Inc. for about $5 billion in shares as the oil giant looks to beef up in the Permian Basin amid the wreckage of the worst crude crash.

Oil prices recently tumbled as a resurgence in coronavirus cases and impending U.S. layoffs darken the economic outlook.

Oil snapped its two-day rally amid a weaker demand outlook underscored by the OPEC+ alliance’s decision to taper production cuts and U.S. economic data signaling a slowing recovery in the labor market.