Exxon’s latest multi-billion writedown signals another quarterly loss

Exxon confirmed in a filing Wednesday it will take a writedown of as much as $20 billion on its upstream assets, a possibility first disclosed at the end of October. It also reported much smaller non-cash impairments related to its refining business. More »

LNG traders look forward to a swift 2021 rebound

Demand for the fuel used in heating and power generation is growing faster than for any other fossil fuel as nations look for a cheap, reliable and cleaner alternative to coal. The pandemic derailed that growth for 2020, but China and India are emerging as major sources of demand. More »

BP’s Caspian Sea project emerges as Russia’s rival for European gas market

Gas pumped from the BP-led Shah Deniz deposit in the Caspian Sea began flowing into Italy, Greece and Bulgaria on Dec. 31, BP and Azerbaijan’s state energy company Socar said in a joint statement. The European Union has worked for years to ease its dependence on Russia, which accounts for about a third of the region’s gas supplies. More »

Buckeye Partners starts crude exports from new Corpus Christi deepwater dock

The completion of the South Texas Gateway dock enables Buckeye to accommodate the berthing and loading of two vessels simultaneously, further facilitating the supply of North American crude oil to global markets. More »

U.S. drilling rig count ends a whipsaw year at pre-share-era levels

The number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. closed out 2020 at 267, according to Baker Hughes Co. data released December 30th. It’s the lowest end-of-year figure since 2005, when drilling and fracking breakthroughs perfected in natural gas regions like North Texas’s Barnett shale were just beginning to be deployed. More »

Russia accelerates Nord Stream 2 project to beat U.S. sanctions

When complete, Nord Stream 2 will allow Russia to expand deliveries of gas to Europe and circumvent the traditional transport corridor through Ukraine. The U.S. and Eastern European nations say the pipeline will make Germany and the European Union too reliant on Russian gas. More »

How one bad Covid bet will forever change how the world trades oil

A coronavirus-fueled trading scandal is driving stricter borrowing rules and accountability standards, dramatically changing key players in the world's oil supply trade. More »

Weakening dollar restores oil price’s climb

A dip in the dollar boosted the appeal of commodities such as oil that are priced in the currency. Crude was also aided by broader market strength, with equities nearing record levels following U.S. President Donald Trump’s signing of a $900 billion virus-relief package. More »

Texas oil regulator releases October 2020 production statistics

The RRC reports that from November 2019 to October 2020, total Texas reported production was 1.5 billion barrels of crude oil and 10.4 trillion cubic feet of total gas. More »

Oil price rally fades as OPEC’s plans overshadow U.S. stimulus

Crude’s shaky start to the week reflects the concern over more travel restrictions as the new mutation in the coronavirus spreads globally. However, the UK is poised to approve the Covid-19 vaccine produced by AstraZeneca Plc and the University of Oxford. More »

Oil prices climb on U.S. stimulus passage, UK vaccine approval

Crude reversed losses of as much as 1.5% after President Donald Trump signed the long-awaited bill containing $900 billion of virus relief that’s expected to boost energy demand in the world’s largest economy. More »

Russia plans to back another OPEC+ production hike in February

“To restore our output, that we’ve reduced a lot, the price range of $45 to $55 a barrel is the most optimal,” Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told reporters in Moscow. “Otherwise we’ll never restore production, others will restore it.” More »

Iran slashes gas exports to Iraq, threatening electricity shortages

Iraq has been receiving 5 million cubic meters a day since Iran cut its daily exports from 50 million cubic meters two weeks ago, Ahmed Moussa, a spokesman for Iraq’s electricity ministry, said in an interview. More »

Russia ready to open the OPEC+ taps as the U.S. dials back its Arctic drilling plans

World Oil editors discuss The North Face doubling down on its principled stand against well-paying American jobs, Russia wants to see OPEC+ production rise in February, and U.S. land regulators shrink Alaskan oil lease acreage. More »

Croatia preps for first U.S. LNG cargo, reducing Russian dependence

The LNG vessel Tristar Ruby, which loaded at the Cove Point plant in Maryland, is headed for Croatia’s terminal on the Adriatic island of Krk, according to ship-tracking data on Bloomberg. The ship is scheduled to arrive on Jan. 1, the expected start date of the terminal. More »

Mozambique repels insurgent attack near Total’s $20B LNG facility

Fighters who’ve aligned with Islamic State in August have already seized the port town of Mocimboa da Praia, about 42 kilometers south of Mute, raising the stakes in a conflict that’s killed about 2,500 people and caused 570,000 to flee their homes since it started three years ago. More »

UAE projects a gradual oil demand recovery in 2021

Rollout of coronavirus vaccines and improvement in ties between the United States and China are likely to improve demand for oil, Energy Minister Suhail Al-Mazrouei told Sky News Arabia. “Recovery will be gradual, and won’t happen in a quarter or two,” he said. More »

Oil prices set for weekly loss on virus news, OPEC+ output hike

A new virus strain and the realization that vaccines will take some time to be rolled out have worsened the short-term oil outlook, while the OPEC+ alliance is poised to add 500,000 barrels a day of production in January. More »

Weak oil prices pushed Saudi export revenue down 25% in October

Saudi Arabia’s export revenue fell by nearly a quarter in October from a year earlier, driven largely by a slump in global oil prices. More »

China eyes energy security with $6.3 billion pipeline consolidation deal

The deal is part of an effort by President Xi Jinping’s government to consolidate the nation’s major pipelines and other midstream facilities into a single firm, intended to boost competition among drillers and downstream oil and gas sellers. More »

Oil prices stabilize as mutant virus appears to spread

The new Covid-19 strain -- which is possibly already in the U.S., Germany, France and Switzerland -- is raising the risk of more stay-at-home measures that would sap energy demand. The UK is considering putting more people under a severe lockdown to halt its spread. More »

Opinion: Biting the hand that feeds you - Virtue signaling against oil and gas

Apparel manufacturer The North Face is inviting scorn and maybe a little coal in their petroleum-based stockings this Christmas, writes Jason Modglin, President of the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers. More »

Equinor stakes NOK 3 billion to improve Statfjord Ost oil recovery

Equinor and its license partners have decided to invest NOK 3 billion in the North Sea Statfjord Øst field to improve recovery by 23 million barrels of oil equivalent. More »

Five options for Biden to quickly implement new climate rules

Joe Biden made it clear on the campaign trail that he planned to take strong action to fight global warming. But his ambitious, $2 trillion climate plan will take time and resources. In the meantime, here are some of the smaller, immediate steps he can take -- and a few that are probably much harder than they look. More »

Google risks upsetting its employees with new Aramco deal

Google will start selling its cloud-computing services in Saudi Arabia through a deal with oil producer Aramco, risking a backlash from staff who oppose doing business with the fossil fuel industry or regimes accused of human rights abuses. More »

Greenpeace can’t stop Arctic drilling, says Norway’s supreme court

The Nordic government beat back a lawsuit by environmental groups in the country’s Supreme Court, which ruled on Tuesday the authorities had acted lawfully by awarding exploration licenses in the Barents Sea to companies including Equinor ASA, Aker BP ASA and Lundin Petroleum AB. More »

Russia said to support OPEC+ output increase in February

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies have shifted to a monthly schedule of meetings, so they can react more rapidly to changes in the market, and make more gradual production adjustments that are better suited to a volatile situation. More »

Diamondback buys Guidon Operating LLC for $862 million

Diamondback said it agreed to purchase closely held Guidon Operating LLC. That cash-and-stock deal values Guidon, which was co-founded in 2016 by funds managed with Blackstone Group, at about $862 million. More »

Shell sells $2.5B Australian LNG stake to GIP

More »

Weir lands $70MM Singapore wellhead and tree deal

Weir Oil and Gas Dubai signed a five-year $70 million contract with Thailand's PTT Exploration and Production, a subsidiary of state-owned energy conglomerate PTT, to supply and install 1,800 sets of wellheads and trees in the Gulf of Thailand. More »

Shell’s multibillion-dollar impairment signals more tough times ahead

The Anglo-Dutch energy giant gave a first taste of what could prove to be another bleak quarter for the industry. It warned of another multibillion-dollar impairment charge, significantly weaker oil trading, a loss in its upstream division and fuel sales that remain sluggish. More »

Oil prices dive as mutating virus chokes international travel

More than 16 million Britons are now required to stay at home after a full lockdown came into force in London and the southeast of England. Some European countries are limiting travel with the UK and France halted freight movements to England for 48 hours. More »

Diamondback to buy QEP Resources in $2.2 billion all-stock deal

Diamondback Energy and QEP Resources have entered into a definitive agreement under which Diamondback will acquire QEP in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $2.2 billion, including QEP’s net debt of $1.6 billion as of September 30, 2020. More »

Biden prepares to tackle fossil fuels in the U.S. and abroad

Joe Biden's cabinet picks, and his interest in working with China to stage elections in Venezuela, will make 2021 a transformative year for fossil fuels. More »

DNV GL and world’s largest shipbuilder pursue “future-proof” tankers

“Shipowners are faced with many uncertainties in the rapidly changing marketplace,” said Seong-Yong Park, COO and SEVP of HHI Group. “We believe our research results, including proven engineering solutions and alternative fuels, will support them in developing their future strategy for ship operations and fleet renewal.” More »

BP, Reliance start gas production on India’s ultra-deepwater KG D6 field

RIL and BP are developing three deepwater gas projects in block KG D6 – R Cluster, Satellites Cluster and MJ – which together are expected to meet ~15% of India’s gas demand by 2023. More »

Bankruptcies leave a smaller, financially-healthier energy industry

About $144 billion of energy bonds were trading at distressed levels in the middle of March, when the pandemic sent oil demand plunging, but that number receded to $37 billion by the end of November. More »

Biden names New Mexico’s Halland U.S. Secretary of the Interior

Deb Haaland, a 60-year-old citizen of the Laguna Pueblo, a 7,700-member tribe west of Albuquerque, New Mexico, has drawn widespread praise from environmental groups and tribal leaders. They say she would bring a deep commitment to protect the land to an agency in charge of 500 million acres of it. More »

All carrot, no stick: Biden seeks negotiations with Venezuela’s Maduro and his allies

The Biden administration signaled an intent to push for free and fair elections in Venezuela, offering sanctions relief in return. Maduro’s foreign backers, including Russia, China and Iran, are expected to play a role, as will Cuba, which is keen to improve relations with the U.S. More »

Energean completes acquisition of Edison EandP

The gross consideration for the transaction, as at the locked box date of 1 January 2019, is $284 million and the final net consideration (net of cash acquired), as of 17 December 2020, is $203 million. More »

Schlumberger, OMV Upstream deploy AI and digital solutions powered by DELFI

The agreement formalizes the commitment from both companies to progress the industry standard OSDU data platform and lays the foundation for further collaboration and innovation for workflows and solutions across the energy spectrum. More »

Baker Hughes launches engageSubsea real-time operational management platform

engageSubsea remote serves as an equipment inspection tool, technical support and operational management platform, and is designed to drive operational excellence and increase capital productivity for offshore oil and gas operators. More »

Maersk Drilling’s first low-emission rig delivers carbon-reduction results offshore Norway

The installation of low-emission technology on offshore rigs is one of several initiatives that support Maersk Drilling’s efforts to reach the company’s recently announced target of reducing its CO2 emissions intensity by 50% by 2030. More »

Aker Solutions lands two key Equinor Northern Lights CO2 contracts

Northern Lights is part of the Norwegian government’s Longship project for establishing full scale CO2 capture, transport and storage facilities in line with the country’s international climate agreements. More »

Oil prices climb past 10-month record on rallying global markets

“It is not only hopes that the stimulus package will be approved in the U.S. that are pushing prices up; U.S. inventory data have also lent positive impetus,” said Commerzbank AG analyst Barbara Lambrecht. More »

Dutch court case claims Shell’s operations violate human rights

Plaintiff groups argued that Shell has a “special position of power” in the energy transition, making it just as responsible for climate change as most states. The oil producer, which accounts for 1.2% of carbon emissions worldwide, has a systemic role in global warming, the suit alleges. More »

Biden taps Jennifer Granholm to lead Department of Energy

Granholm served as energy adviser to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and has been credited with expanding Michigan’s clean energy industry during her two terms as governor. More »

Opinion: Energy costs decrease when government gets out of the way

It looks like the mainstream media have finally realized that government intervention in energy markets impacts the cost of energy for consumers. More »

Venture Global, Baker Hughes move Louisiana LNG terminal ahead of schedule

Venture Global LNG Inc. plans to have six of 18 production units at the Calcasieu Pass plant in Louisiana installed by mid-February, CEO Mike Sabel said in an interview. Commercial operations are expected in 2022. More »

Aker Solutions lands Johan Sverdrup phase two connection contract

The new contract covers hook-up on the field and other hook-up and completion tasks that must be carried out after the platform has been installed to prepare it for operation. More »

Shell and Equinor develop smart inventory management system with Microsoft Azure

Shell and Equinor will develop the next generation of Shell Inventory Optimizer, a solution that leverages advanced analytics on historical data to optimize operational spare part inventory levels. Microsoft will be supporting Shell and Equinor with the co-development of the tool, which runs on Microsoft Azure. More »

Indigenous Alaskans seek to block Arctic oil lease auction

On Dec. 14th, the groups filed requests with an Anchorage judge for a preliminary injunction to prevent the Interior Department’s planned Jan. 6 auction of oil and gas leases across the refuge’s 1.56-million-acre coastal plain. More »

Norway agrees to fund Equinor’s Northern Lights CO2 project

The funding decision demonstrates the Norwegian government's support for the development of a Carbon Capture and Storage value chain, which is essential if Europe is to achieve its carbon neutrality targets. More »

OPEC president warns against rushing crude production hikes

Algeria’s Energy Minister Abdelmajid Attar, who holds OPEC’s rotating presidency, said there was no guarantee the group and its allies would raise crude production by 2 million barrels a day by April, even after an agreement earlier this month to reach that level in steps. More »

North Dakota regulator sees Bakken shale growth stalled until 2022

Home to the Bakken shale formation, North Dakota won’t see any sustained growth in production sooner than the second half of 2022, Lynn Helms, director of the state’s Department of Mineral Resources, said. More »

IEA projects a global crude oversupply through 2021

“Demand is clearly going to be lower for longer than expected” when the virus emerged in the spring, the agency said in a report, trimming forecasts for world fuel consumption following a new wave of lockdowns. “The market remains fragile,” it warned. More »

TGS, PGS, CGG unify multi-client seismic data libraries in cloud-based ecosystem

The strategic partnership will enable a single search point to access all three companies’ multi-client data and allow customers to interactively find, visualize and download their subsurface assets and entitlements all in one place. More »

Exxon sets greenhouse gas reduction targets, eliminating flaring by 2030

Exxon pledged to reduce the intensity of upstream emissions by as much as 20% by 2025 as well as cutting flaring and methane leaks, consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement. More »

OPEC lowers demand outlook ahead of output quota review

“Uncertainties remain high, mainly surrounding the development of the Covid-19 pandemic and rollout of vaccines, as well as the structural impact of Covid-19 on consumer behaviors, predominantly in transportation sector,” OPEC’s Vienna-based secretariat said in the report. More »

Wall Street favor shifting from U.S. shale to Canadian oil sands

Steady output from their mines means that oil sands producers are able to keep revenue coming for decades without too much investment, while the short life span of shale wells forces U.S. explorers to constantly burn cash just to keep up production. More »

Tanker explosion pushes oil past $50 on Middle East stability concerns

Oil is up more than 30% since the end of October amid vaccine breakthroughs and an OPEC+ compromise deal on production. Iran, meanwhile, plans to almost double output in the next year in anticipation of a loosening of sanctions after Joe Biden becomes president. More »

Kazakhstan nets $1.3B from Shell, Eni in revenue-sharing settlement

The deal unlocks plans to boost output from the Karachaganak field and funnels additional revenue to the Kazakh economy, which is heading for its first annual contraction in more than two decades amid oil’s slump. More »

Second tanker attacked in the Saudi Red Sea in three weeks

Tensions in the area have risen as the U.S., a Saudi ally, ramps up sanctions on Iran, which backs the Houthis in Yemen’s civil war. More »

Iran plans to double oil output in 2021 under weaker U.S. sanctions

Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh told lawmakers the government aims to pump 4.5 million barrels a day of oil and gas condensate during the next Iranian calendar year beginning on March 21. More »

UN’s Climate Ambition Summit ends with more pledges, no actual plans

As political and corporate leaders jostle to prove how progressive they are on the issue, the challenge is getting them to make specific, short-term commitments that back up their impressive sounding long-term goals. More »

As the world focuses on climate change targets, the Middle East doubles down on oil

With the Paris Agreement's decarbonization plans suddenly not ambitious enough for the West, key Middle East producers see an opportunity, and are putting serious money down to cover their bets. More »

Oil prices find new strength as financial markets prep for a 2021 recovery

The past few weeks for oil have been more than a realignment of supply and demand -- huge financial flows are also driving the price rally. In a world that’s expecting to see travel recover sharply next year, crude has become a hot Covid-vaccine trade. More »

Putin bets Turkey will strain EU and NATO relations in his favor

From Azerbaijan to Syria to Libya, Erdogan’s drive to rebuild Turkey’s influence as a regional power has forced Russia to roll back its ambitions. Even as Erdogan increasingly positions himself as a check on the Kremlin’s geopolitical reach, Putin has nothing but warm words for his Black Sea neighbor in public. More »

Aramco seeks to follow ADNOC’s lead raising cash from asset sales

Saudi Aramco has hired Moelis and Co. to devise a strategy for selling stakes in some subsidiaries, according to people familiar with the matter. The plan includes raising around $10 billion from a stake sale in Aramco’s pipelines. More »

Norway’s parliament wants Equinor on a shorter leash

Espen Barth Eide, a lawmaker for the Labor Party, says there’s “room for a more explicit form of corporate governance” in the way Norway uses its Equinor stake. More »

Oil price rally stalls with Brent overbought at $50

Prices erased earlier gains on Friday as the dollar climbed and equities fell. Brent crude had topped $50 on Thursday, though it settled technically overbought, suggesting a pullback may be on the horizon. More »

Judge blocks Texas oil regulator’s emergency rule waivers

The decision by a state judge means that the Railroad Commission of Texas will not be able to enforce a series of emergency rule-waivers announced in May. District Court Judge Jan Soifer faulted the agency for failing to give the public adequate forewarning. More »

BP, Amazon extend renewable energy and cloud computing agreements

In a new series of clean power agreements, BP has agreed to more than triple the renewable power that it will supply Amazon in Europe, while Amazon Web Services will enable the acceleration of BP’s program to digitize its infrastructure and operations. More »

SEG appoints Jim C. White as its new Executive Director

White’s professional career spans the geophysical industry with experience in executive management, business development, strategic planning, risk analysis, program management, and financial strategies. More »

Trump keeps door open for expanded offshore drilling

The proposal under development is set to outline potential sales of long-plumbed territory in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as waters around Alaska and near Southern California, where exploratory oil drilling was last conducted decades ago. Atlantic waters near the coasts of Maryland and Delaware are also included in the proposed sale program. More »

UK climate change report underlines fiscal importance of domestic energy supply

The Sixth Carbon Budget published by the Committee on Climate Change makes the case for meeting as much as possible of the UK’s ongoing domestic needs from domestic production, warning of the risk that lower production costs internationally could favor imports. More »

Eagle Ford shale production expected to decline 10% in 2021

Shale operators slashed their planned capital expenditure (capex) for 2020 to account for the oil price crash, which inevitably led to decline in drilling and completion activity in the Eagle Ford play. Hence, crude oil production is expected to drop by 10% year-on-year (YOY) in 2021, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company. More »

BP, Amazon extend renewable energy and high-performance computing agreements

In a new series of clean power agreements, BP has agreed to more than triple the renewable power that it will supply Amazon in Europe, while Amazon Web Services will enable the acceleration of BP’s program to digitize its infrastructure and operations. More »

UAE, Israel discuss joint oil and gas projects as relations improve

OPEC’s third-largest oil producer and Israel held their first natural gas and petroleum working group meeting, UAE’s state-run WAM news agency reported on Thursday. More »

Ørsted and Amazon sign Europe’s largest offshore wind corporate power purchase agreement

The 250MW corporate power purchase agreement, the largest ever for offshore wind in Europe, will help Amazon achieve their commitment to be net zero carbon by 2040 as set out in their Climate Pledge. More »

Egypt seeks private investment for its army-owned oil company

Egypt, which started a sweeping economic reform program about four years ago, has been reworking to revamp and re-energize state-owned companies and attract foreign investors who have so far largely been attracted to the North African nation’s debt market and energy industry. More »

Oil flirts with $50 as more Covid-19 vaccines approved

Canada became the latest country to approve a Covid vaccine and Chicago said it will offer inoculations free of charge to all adults next year. These helped traders on Thursday dismiss the second-biggest increase ever in U.S. crude inventories. More »

COVID-19 drove an 11% drop in U.S. energy sector’s CO2 emissions

Transportation-related CO2 emissions fell to 102 million metric tons in April 2020, the lowest monthly level since February 1983. More »

Oil prices hold gains despite rapidly growing U.S. inventories

Oil has chopped around nine-month highs this week as the market holds out for an upcoming vaccine rollout to spur another leg of demand recovery. Before then, worries about the pace of the demand recovery continue to weigh on sentiment as governments reimpose restrictions to fight off the virus’s spread. More »

More Norwegians saying “not in my backyard” to onshore wind farms

A survey of Norwegians in November showed that only 36% were favorable about onshore wind as an energy source, down from as much as 84% in 2011. Oil’s popularity has increased to 29% from just 16% five years ago. More »

Baker Hughes, Aramco join to advance materials science in the energy sector

Non-metallic products are being deployed in a variety of industries, from the oil and gas sector to automotive, building and construction, packaging and renewables. In addition to being more sustainable, these advanced materials make them lighter than their conventional counterparts and resistant to corrosion. More »

Alberta locks down as province’s economy shrinks by 8.1% this year

The province’s economy is expected to contract 8.1% this year, the most on record, because of virus restrictions and the downturn in oil prices. Home of the world’s third-largest crude reserves, outbreaks have happened at at least seven oil-sands sites in the north of the province. More »

ADNOC and Oxy team up to boost UAE’s oil and gas output

Government-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. picked Occidental to explore for oil and natural gas at a block in the desert along the UAE’s border with Oman, ADNOC said Wednesday in a statement. The block is adjacent to an exploration area that ADNOC awarded to Occidental last year. More »

Brazil’s fuel demand surpasses 2019 levels, with more growth for 2021

Brazil’s surge in oil demand is a welcome development for a global market that’s been forced to push back expectations for when energy demand might get back to pre-virus levels. More »

23rd World Petroleum Congress on track for 2021 in Houston

Momentum continues to build behind the 23rd World Petroleum Congress, and looks set to continue into 2021, according to the 23rd World Petroleum Congress Organizing Committee. More »

China bails out Iraq with long-term, upfront cash deal for oil

The deal is the latest example of China, via state-controlled trading companies and banks, lending to struggling oil producers such as Angola, Venezuela and Ecuador, with repayment in the form of oil barrels rather than cash. More »

China bails out Iraq with long-term, upfront cash oil deal

The deal is the latest example of China, via state-controlled trading companies and banks, lending to struggling oil producers such as Angola, Venezuela and Ecuador, with repayment in the form of oil barrels rather than cash. More »

PESA reports oilfield services sector added jobs in November

America’s oilfield services and equipment sector employment rose slightly for a third month, adding an estimated 2,665 jobs in November, according to preliminary data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and analysis by the Petroleum Equipment and Services Association. More »

Turkey challenges EU’s “strategic blindness” over Mediterranean sanctions

In February, the EU imposed asset freezes and travel bans on two employees of Turkish Petroleum Corp. in response to Turkey’s natural-gas gas hunt off Cyprus. A Cypriot proposal to include Turkish entities and add individuals to that blacklist has been held up since June. More »

Shell says a successful energy transition hinges on pressure from Biden

“I’m quite hopeful that with the new administration coming in, there will be change of sentiment and hopefully a change of direction,” Ben van Beurden said in the Web Summit conference. Without increased cooperation “I don’t think we are going to succeed in the energy transition.” More »

Chevron’s CEO says “action over pledges” will deliver higher returns, lower carbon

“We’ve been able to remain very steady as others have had to change strategy, change dividend, change financial priorities,” Chevron CEO Mike Wirth said. “For us it’s been a pretty simple promise of higher returns, lower carbon and you can count on us.” More »

U.S. natural gas prices dive on warm winter predictions

The market has faced a major sell-off since prices rose to a 21-month high at the end of October, with speculators all but giving up any prospect of a frigid winter. More »

Oil prices stumble as Brent reenters contango

Oil is still near a nine-month high after surging last month amid optimism over vaccine breakthroughs and its trajectory over the next few months will depend on how quickly Covid-19 drugs can be deployed. More »

ADNOC increases oil supply to Asia as part of OPEC+ deal

While OPEC’s third-largest producer will still reduce supply to Asia in January, the curbs won’t be as deep as this month in percentage terms. More »

Oman monetizes oil reserves by starting a new energy company

The firm, to be called Energy Development Oman, will own a shareholding in Petroleum Development Oman LLC as well as an interest in Block 6, according to a government gazette on Sunday. The company will “undertake hydrocarbon exploration and production operations” and can borrow money “in any manner.” More »

China, India show new interest in oil from U.S.-sanctioned nations

If a Biden presidency leads to a resumption in Iranian and Venezuelan oil exports, the new supply will likely cause a further headache for the OPEC+ alliance and would also reshape crude flows to Asia. More »

Iran views Biden presidency as opportunity to pump more oil

Tehran will “prepare resources and oil-industry equipment for the production and export of oil in line with current capacity within the next three months,” according to President Hassan Rouhani’s official website. “We’re ready to quickly raise oil production,” he said. More »

Russia weighs scenarios for declining global oil demand

“The peak of consumption may have already passed,” Deputy Finance Minister Vladimir Kolychev said in an interview in Moscow. “The risk is rising in the longer term” that hydrocarbon revenues could come in below the current outlook, he said. More »

Asian oil demand strengthens North Sea crude markets

Over the past several weeks, Asian refineries have snapped up crude oil from the Middle East, the U.S. and Russia as buyers received more government allowances to boost imports after the start of next year. Demand for North Sea barrels was slow to pick up, but even that’s now started to change. More »

Stronger dollar pushes oil prices from nine-month high

Crude futures were down 1.9% in New York, with the dollar trading higher and European stock markets declining. It follows a rally last week after OPEC and its allies agreed to add 500,000 barrels a day of output from January to a market that’s showing signs of recovery. More »

There's something rotten in the state of Denmark's grand energy plans

It's a tale of two cities with the EU's largest oil producer swearing off production by 2050, as OPEC+ stalwarts Saudi Arabia and the UAE grapple over who will lead the group's drive to meet the world's future oil demand. More »

Asian markets are OPEC+ and U.S. shale’s latest battleground for market control

In the wake of fresh warnings about declining oil demand, a struggle is brewing between key exporters like the U.S. and the OPEC+ alliance to gain market share in the world's last growth region before it’s too late. More »

Abu Dhabi’s long-term oil ambitions become clear in OPEC+ clash

The UAE’s multi-billion-dollar investments to grow oil market share plays into a wider shift in the dynamic between Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over who in the region holds sway on the international stage. More »

Saudis raise Asian oil prices as vaccines spur demand

The largest oil price increase in five months indicates Saudi Arabia is confident global energy demand is strong enough to absorb a small boost in output from OPEC+ members next month, and that markets will remain tight even with parts of Europe and the U.S. in lockdown. More »

Asian markets are OPEC+ and U.S. shale’s battleground for market control

More »

Total said to mull sale of Kurdistan oilfield interest

Total has been selling assets to curb debt as plunging oil and gas prices sap earnings, including oil field assets in Brunei and the UK, as well as a stake in a renewables subsidiary in France. More »

EU’s biggest oil producer to end North Sea operations by 2050

Denmark, the European Union’s biggest oil producer, will stop offering new licenses in the North Sea and phase out production altogether in 2050 as it takes an historic step toward a fossil-fuel free future. More »

Oil prices near $50 on OPEC compromise, booming Asian demand

The prompt timespread for global benchmark Brent crude moved further into backwardation, while the nearest December contract is trading at a higher level than the same contract for December 2022. More »

OPEC’s deal fractures group unity, sets up future struggles

After a split emerged between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the cartel couldn’t agree on what had been widely expected before this week: a full three-month delay to the scheduled January output increase. More »

Newfoundland commits government funds to support West White Rose project

"The funding will help maintain the project in warm suspension during 2021 and hopefully position it for a full restart in 2022 and the path to first oil," Newfoundland and Labrador Oil and Gas Industries Association CEO Charlene Johnson said in a statement. More »

OPEC+ agrees to start increasing oil production quotas in January

OPEC and its allies rescued the oil market earlier this year from an unprecedented slump, slashing production by 9.7 million barrels a day as the pandemic crushed demand. The cartel returned 2 million barrels a day of that output to the market in August without a hiccup, and was due to add a similar volume next month. More »

Alaska’s ANWR oil exploration auction set for January 6th

A formal “notice of sale” is set to be published in the Federal Register on Dec. 7. The move is in keeping with a congressional mandate to hold two auctions of oil and gas leases in the refuge’s coastal plain by Dec. 22, 2024. More »

U.S. crude may be included in Brent global benchmark pricing

The move reflects the growing importance of U.S. crude internationally -- the country five years ago ended restrictions on oil exports imposed during the energy crises of the 1970s -- and the fact that supplies of some of the North Sea’s key grades are dwindling. More »

Chevron cuts capital spend plans, prioritizing U.S. oil plays

The company said that capital and exploratory expenditure will be $14 billion to $16 billion annually from 2022 to 2025, down from a previous forecast of $19 billion to $22 billion. More »

Iran’s Guardian Council forces showdown on U.S. nuclear sanctions

Iran’s top political chamber gave final approval to a bill forcing President Hassan Rouhani to end international nuclear inspections unless the U.S. lifts key sanctions by February, giving the incoming Biden administration just weeks to make a diplomatic breakthrough. More »

Woodside cuts seismic processing time from weeks to hours with Amazon Web Services

Woodside successfully executed the million-vCPU scale computing workload across three AWS regions in the United States. The vCPUs performed full-waveform inversion on 3,200 km2 of 3D seismic data from the Greater Sunrise gas resource, located offshore Timor-Leste. More »

Pemex goes offline in oil industry’s largest climate organization

The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative's biggest project to date has been to set targets for the reduction of carbon dioxide and methane emissions from its member companies. More »

Pioneer Natural Resources sets out on 2030 carbon-reduction plan

Reducing emissions intensity means that Pioneer will cut the amount of pollution per barrel of oil produced rather than the absolute amount of greenhouse gases pumped into the atmosphere. More »

Oil prices slide ahead of OPEC+ output decision

Futures in New York traded near $45 a barrel. Discussions are now focusing on proposals for a gradual easing of production cuts over several months, following talks between Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, said a delegate. More »

OPEC+ narrowing in on deal to restore oil production gradually

Discussions have focused on a gradual relaxation of output cuts over several months, and according to one delegate there could be a one-month delay before the tapering starts. More »

Baker Hughes, Shell Offshore win 2020 COS Safety Leadership Awards

The Center for Offshore Safety announced the winners of the 2020 Safety Leadership Awards, recognizing companies for their outstanding leadership in developing safety management and performance practices and projects that advance the offshore industry’s culture of safety. More »

Society for Underwater Technology names Dr. Cheryl Burgess new Chief Executive

The former Director General of the Pipeline Industries Guild, Dr. Burgess’ extensive international expertise from her years with UK Trade and Investment and the Society of British Gas Industries will bring benefit to the SUT’s international Branches and interests. More »

Petrofac partners with Intoware to drive value through digital deployment

Petrofac has signed a three-year partnership with Intoware, a leading provider of workflow automation software for mobile applications, to develop and deploy workflow automation software that is specifically tailored to the requirements of the oil and gas industry. More »

Western oil majors’ writedowns pass $70 billion as virus saps demand

This year’s writedowns exceed even the downturn of 2014-2016 not only because of the severity of the oil-price collapse but also due to the fact that it was driven by falling demand for petroleum. More »

Brazil’s Petrobras CEO doubts decarbonization by “magical year” 2050

Petrobras CEO Roberto Castello Branco's stance more or less echoes those of U.S. oil giants Exxon Mobil and Chevron, which have emission reduction plans but have been outspoken about their focus on crude. More »

Oil prices stabilize as OPEC focuses on diplomacy

Expanding stockpiles, strong demand in Asia and a suddenly resurgent North Sea market highlight the problems faced by OPEC and its allies as they consider whether a bifurcated market can handle more supply. More »

Dramatic meetings leave OPEC+ in relationship-mending mode

Differences between the Saudis and the UAE prevented the cartel from reaching a clear agreement on whether to delay a planned production increase. Traditionally stalwart allies, a fissure has emerged between the two Persian Gulf exporters as Abu Dhabi pursues a more independent oil policy. More »

Conoco may dismiss up to 25% of Houston HQ staff as Concho buy closes

“The process to determine the exact number of impacted employees is ongoing,” the company said in an email on December 1. “However, we anticipate the number of reductions in Houston could meet the threshold of 500 or more.” More »

The 28th World Gas Conference rescheduled to summer 2022

WGC2022 will unite the entire gas supply chain hosting 12,000+ attendees and 350 exhibitors, representing 500 companies from more than 90 countries, and generating top headlines from international press present at this high-profile event. More »

TGS completes final processing products for high-resolution Canton and Gloss Mountain 3Ds

These projects encompass approximately 2,895 square kilometers in Major, Woods and Blaine counties in the Anadarko Basin. Historical production in this area comes from stacked pay horizons ranging from the Ordovician Arbuckle to the Pennsylvanian Marmaton Group. More »

IOGP names Iman Hill as its new executive director

The International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP) welcomes Iman Hill as its new Executive Director effective today. She is succeeding Gordon Ballard, who will step down at the end of the year, following his five-year tenure. More »

Iran to end nuclear inspections if U.S. oil sanctions aren’t lifted

Iranian legislators gave Washington a month to comply with their demands to remove penalties for dealing with Iran’s oil and banking industries. They toughened the original terms of the bill, which had called for a three-month window, after the assassination of a top Iranian nuclear scientist last week. More »

“Zombie” tankers triple Venezuela’s oil exports to China despite U.S. sanctions

While PDVSA’s internal documents show vessels like Vinland, Pacific Cape and Vision loading at the port of Jose, these vessels are not operational. Data show that they were sent to the scrapyard months prior to the scheduled loading dates in Venezuela. More »

OPEC’s credibility on the line as factional divides deepen

OPEC ministers met on Monday and had been scheduled to talk to their non-OPEC partners on Tuesday. At one point, there had appeared to be a consensus building between ministers yesterday, but the meeting then became unusually fraught. More »

Enbridge wins approval for Alberta oil sands pipeline to U.S. Midwest

Minnesota approved the stormwater pollution plan for Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline replacement and expansion, the project’s last pending permit, the company said. Construction is expected to take six to nine months on a line that will add 370,000 barrels a day of capacity. More »

Oil prices rise as OPEC+ delays a decision on output hikes

OPEC+ ministers will now meet on Thursday rather than Tuesday to allow more time to deliberate on whether to delay a planned increase in output from January. More »