When Iran seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker last year, Tehran said the transporter had collided with and damaged an Iranian vessel in the Gulf of Oman. Now, nearly one year later, Tehran said it will confiscate the cargo of the Advantage Sweet, which was transporting oil from Kuwait to the U.S. state of Texas, in retaliation for crippling American sanctions against the Islamic republic.The Mizan news agency, which is affiliated with Iran's judiciary, reported on March 6 that a Tehran court... Читать дальше...
Germany could still expropriate Rosneft’s German assets, the country’s economy ministry said on Friday, in a warning to the Russian oil giant to propose potential buyers of its assets. Germany extended its trusteeship over Rosneft’s assets in Germany for the third time earlier this week, but new signs that Rosneft could be open to finding a buyer for its assets in Germany stopped the Energy Ministry from moving to expropriate the assets. Germany said it would need to approve possible buyers to ensure... Читать дальше...
Via Metal Miner The West African state of Guinea recently approved a joint development deal between the government, Rio Tinto/Simfer, and the Winning Consortium Simandou (WCS) consortia to develop the Simandou iron ore mining project. The National Transition Council (NTC), Guinea’s legislative body under the interim regime, announced the deal’s approval on February 3. “In short, this agreement provides for…the construction of railway and port infrastructure, no later than December 31, 2025 and the... Читать дальше...
The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States fell this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday. The total rig count fell by 7 to 622 this week, compared to 746 rigs this same time last year. The number of oil rigs fell by 2 this week after rising by 3 in the week prior. Oil rigs now stand at 504--down by 86 compared to this time last year. The number of gas rigs fell again this week by 4 to 115, a loss of 38 active gas rigs from this time last year. Читать дальше...
Brazil’s state-run oil company, Petrobras, saw its shares crash on Friday after it skimped on its dividend, with the ramifications spilling beyond Petrobras and into the wider Brazilian stock market. Petrobras’ market value tumbled on Friday by $14 billion after the company’s fourth-quarter results—published on Thursday—disappointed investors with a reduced dividend. Investors and analysts had expected an extraordinary dividend between $3 and $4 billion for the quarter, on top of the $2.9 billion... Читать дальше...
Saudi Aramco and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), the state oil giants of two of OPEC’s top producers, are in very early stages of working to extract lithium from the brine in their huge oilfields in the Middle East, Reuters reported on Friday, citing three anonymous sources with knowledge of the plans. The two major Gulf oil producers have been seeking to diversify their revenues streams and tap other profitable operations apart from oil, to fund their massive state programs and, in Saudi Arabia’s case... Читать дальше...
Equinor has put into operation a 531-megawatt solar plant in Brazil, which boosts its power production in the South American country by 30%, the Norwegian major said on Friday. The 531-MW Mendubim solar plant will produce 1.2 terawatts per hour (TWh) of power annually, of which some 60% will be sold on a 20-year US-dollar-denominated power purchase agreement (PPA) with Alunorte, one of the world’s leading suppliers of alumina for the aluminum industry. The remaining power production from Mendubim... Читать дальше...
The head of UK supermajor BP paid chief executive Murray Auchincloss £8m for 2023 on the back of a better-than-expected year. Figures published by the oil supermajor today showed Auchincloss’s base pay for the year was £1.6m with a variable performance-based top-up of £6.5m. Auchincloss served as the firm’s chief financial officer for the majority of 2023. He took over as the interim chief of the company between September 2023 and January of this year after former head Bernard Looney’s departure. Читать дальше...
Chinese coal imports this year are expected at around the record levels of 2023, according to an executive at China’s state-run utility Guangdong Energy Group. China’s coal imports jumped last year by 62% to a record high of 474.42 million metric tons, driven by high demand, lower-quality domestic coal, and higher domestic prices. This year, imports are expected to be between 450 million and 500 million metric tons this year, Reuters quoted Wu Wenbin, head of coal management at Guangdong Energy Group... Читать дальше...
Oil prices have remained largely rangebound over the last month as bullish and bearish factors continue to counterbalance each other. Friday, March 8th 2024The flatlining of oil prices continued this week despite positive trade data coming out of China and impressive Indian oil demand, with a continued build-up in US crude inventories and skepticism vis-à-vis OPEC+’s extended voluntary cuts offsetting that positive momentum. The last time ICE Brent futures settled outside of the $80-85 per barrel... Читать дальше...
The U.S. Administration’s pause on approvals of new LNG export projects could last for several months until the U.S. Department of Energy reviews the grounds for authorizations, a DOE official told Bloomberg in an interview on Friday. At the end of January, the Biden Administration said it was pausing all pending decisions on U.S. LNG export projects until the Department of Energy can update the underlying analyses for authorizations. During the temporary pause – which is expected to affect four... Читать дальше...
April West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures have seen varied movements in the past week, influenced by a range of global factors. The interplay of U.S. crude inventories, OPEC+ production decisions, fluctuating demand from China, Middle East tensions, the U.S. dollar's value, and anticipations of the Federal Reserve's policy have all played roles in shaping crude oil prices. OPEC+ Production Strategy OPEC+, with Saudi Arabia and Russia at the forefront, has extended its voluntary oil output... Читать дальше...
Venezuela has announced an election date - July 28 - and Maduro is the only candidate, with a return of U.S. sanctions at stake. Maduro banned the only opposition candidate, Maria Corina Machado, from running in what the opposition says are politically motivated allegations of financial misconduct. Washington has so far resisted a reinstatement of sanctions, even as Maduro has attempted to create an international incident by declaring the takeover of Guyana’s oil-rich Essequibo region, and even after... Читать дальше...
1. Guyana Takes Over European Oil Markets - Guyanese crude exports to Europe hit an all-time high in February, moving to 432,000 b/d, as the continent’s buyers mopped up additional barrels coming from the recently launched Payara Gold stream. - With the increasing flow of Guyanese cargoes, Europe’s own medium sour grade Johan Sverdrup, the largest producing field across the continent, has seen an unprecedented decline in its prices. - Sverdrup differentials soared to multi-dollar premiums at the... Читать дальше...
The Keystone pipeline carrying crude from Alberta to Nebraska resumed operations late on Thursday after being put briefly offline as a precautionary measure. The pipeline with a capacity to transport 622,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil was safely placed back into operation on Thursday, after a brief suspension of services as a precautionary measure, Keystone’s operator TC Energy said. The pipeline is intact and no oil has been released, TC Energy confirmed. Earlier on Thursday, the company had reportedly... Читать дальше...
The United States Central Command carried out on Thursday self-defense strikes against Houthi missiles and drones in areas in Yemen controlled by the Iran-aligned group, CENTCOM said in a statement on Friday. CENTCOM forces conducted on Thursday afternoon local time self-defense strikes against four mobile Houthi anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCM) and one Houthi unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, the Command said. CENTCOM forces also shot down during this timeframe... Читать дальше...
The OPEC+ group’s combined crude oil production in February was little changed from January and still above the overall output quota that OPEC and its allies pledged when they announced extra voluntary supply reductions, according to the latest Platts survey by S&P Global Commodity Insights. The survey showed total OPEC+ oil production flat in February from January at around 41.21 million barrels per day (bpd), which, per Platts’ estimates, was about 175,000 bpd higher than the overall quota. Читать дальше...
Oil demand growth in China is about to weaken in the coming years as electric vehicle uptake and a switch from oil to LNG for trucks displaces a solid chunk of demand, the research arm of CNPC has forecast. Growth in EV sales and LNG-powered trucks would shave between 10% and 12% off the country’s demand for gasoline and diesel just this year, Lu Ruquan, president of CNPC’s Economics and Technology Research Institute, said as quoted by Bloomberg. He added that overall oil demand will remain on an upward trajectory... Читать дальше...
Crude oil prices have been stuck between bearish and bullish news this week, booking a modest decline over the four days to Thursday. This could yet change later today, resulting in another week of gains for benchmarks. On the other hand, the bearish sentiment may prevail. On that side, the focus has been on Chinese demand, which CNPC said this week is about to enter a period of depression. According to the president of CNPC’s research arm, EVs and LNG-powered trucks would displace between 10% and... Читать дальше...
China’s CNOOC has announced a sizeable discovery offshore that could contain as much as 100 million tons of oil equivalent. The discovery was made in the South China Sea, in an already producing area of the Pearl River Delta, the company said, as quoted by Reuters. The resources in it are light crude. CNOOC, whose net oil and gas production hit an all-time high of 675 million barrels of oil equivalent in 2023, now aims at an output of between 700 million and 720 million barrels of oil equivalent... Читать дальше...
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” That line taken from the 1859, Dickensian novel, A Tale of Two Cities, fairly well describes the state in which we find the present-day natural gas market. Burgeoning supplies from prolific wells in the Marcellus and Haynesville shale basins have met with increasing amounts of associated gas from the Permian as noted in last month’s EIA-Drilling Productivity Report-DPR. All of this has met with an El Niño led reduced demand for winter heating needs. Читать дальше...
Natural gas is now back in fashion in a very big way and the new mantra is that domestic sources in combination with renewable energy are the only true answer to energy security. In early February, Germany earmarked $16 billion for the construction of four natural gas power plants to complement a renewable energy expansion push. And Austria has recently made its largest natural gas discovery in four decades—enough to increase its domestic production by 50%. All of this pinpoints Europe as one of... Читать дальше...
Despite significant potential, Colombia’s oil and gas industry has had a variety of highs and lows due to political disruption, varying international interest and other determining factors. With a more stable political outlook for the coming years, Colombia hopes to get its oil output back on track, but it is still uncertain whether the South American country will achieve this goal. Further, socialist President Gustavo Petro is aiming to decarbonise the country’s economy as it undergoes a green transition... Читать дальше...
Kazakhstan is positioning itself as an important potential global supplier of high-quality lithium just as demand surges for the mineral, which is indispensable for the booming power-storage technology industry. The auspices are good, although few firm investment commitments have materialized. Speaking at a conference in Seoul on March 5, researchers from the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources announced that they had discovered sizable lithium reserves in an area of eastern Kazakhstan. Читать дальше...
