Woodside and Tokyo Gas discuss stake in US LNG Project
Tokyo Gas and Woodside Energy are in discussions about a possible stake in the multi-billion dollar Louisiana LNG export project. Two people familiar with these talks confirm this. Woodside, a major Australian oil and natural gas company, closed a deal this month to buy Tellurian Inc., a developer that had put itself up for sale after running out of money while building a U.S. Gulf Coast plant capable of converting shale-gas into LNG at a rate of 27,7 million tons annually.
Castleton Closes Shell Shale Deal
Houston-based Castleton Resources said that its subsidiary Castleton Commodities International LLC (CCI) has closed on the acquisition of the East Texas and North Louisiana Haynesville Shale assets of BG US Production Company LLC, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc. Pro forma for the acquisition, Castleton Resources will hold approximately 222,400 net acres in the region and produce approximately 334 MMcfe/d (net).
Three Injured in TPC Port Neches Explosion
Three workers were injured in an early Wednesday explosion that sparked a blaze at a petrochemical plant in Port Neches, Texas, the latest in a series of chemical plant accidents in the region.An initial explosion at the TPC Group plant was followed by secondary blasts, shattering windows and blowing locked doors off their hinges in homes near the facility, which is about 90 miles east of Houston.Residents within…
U.S. NatGas Prices Near 25-year Low as Glut Weighs
In the shale field that helped launch the U.S. natural gas boom a decade ago, Chesapeake Energy Corp this month set aside its last drilling rig. The problem for the once No. 2 U.S. gas producer was not a lack of gas, but too much of it.A long, steady increase in U.S. gas production – much of it a byproduct of the shale oil boom – has prices for the fuel heading toward a 25-year low, with output outpacing U.S.
BP Launches $3 Bln Sale of US Onshore Assets
Britain's BP has launched the sale of U.S. oil and gas onshore assets that could raise more than $3 billion to help pay for other fields in the United States it bought in October from BHP, industry and banking sources said.The sale proceeds will partly fund the $10.5 billion acquisition of BHP's onshore assets that are mostly around oil-producing fields in Texas and Louisiana. BP had said it would sell $5 billion…
OPEC Should Heed Achnacarry Lessons: Kemp
OPEC members are struggling to protect their revenues in the face of renewed competition from U.S. shale producers and other suppliers outside the organisation. OPEC's revenues from petroleum exports have fallen to just $446 billion in 2016 from $1.2 trillion in 2012 ("Annual Statistical Bulletin", OPEC, 2017). But past experience strongly suggests OPEC's effort to stabilise oil inventories and prices while protecting its market share will fail.
Tokyo Gas buys stake in Castleton's Texas Unit
Japan's biggest city gas supplier Tokyo Gas Co said on Monday it has acquired a 30 percent stake in a subsidiary of Castleton Commodities International LLC, its first equity investment in a U.S. upstream company. Tokyo Gas did not reveal the price for the stake in Castleton Resources LLC, which owns and operates over 160,000 net acres of leasehold in East Texas with access to the Cotton Valley and Haynesville Shale and has a net production of about 238 million cubic feet equivalent per day…
Top Trading Houses Weigh in at Commodities Conference
Top executives from the world's largest commodity trading houses discuss trends in trading at the FT Commodities Global Summit in Lausanne, Switzerland, this week. "Trade policies coupled with foreign aid and sound development policy is critical. "We all have to make the case for free trade," he said, arguing that "we have to help political leaders speak to their base". MacLennan has yet to be invited to meet U.S. President Donald Trump but would engage in debate with the U.S.
U.S. Shale Greater Threat to OPEC After Oil Price War
In a corner of the prolific Bakken shale play in North Dakota, oil companies can now pump crude at a price almost as low as that enjoyed by OPEC giants Iran and Iraq. Until a few years ago it was unprofitable to produce oil from shale in the United States. But the steep slide in costs has U.S. shale operators poised to capitalize on Wednesday's decision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to cap output for the first time in eight years.
Devon Energy to Shed $1 bln in Assets
Oil and natural gas producer Devon Energy Corp said it would sell nearly $1 billion of producing assets in Texas and certain royalty interest as part of its divestiture program to improve its finances. Devon said on Monday it would sell assets in east Texas for $525 million and assets in Anadarko Basin's Granite Wash area for $310 million. The company will sell its royalty interest in the northern Midland Basin for $139 million.
Keystone Snub Adds to Gloomy Prospects for Pipeline Companies
North American pipeline companies are at a crossroads. Once the darlings of investors, their growth prospects have been undercut by a 50 percent slide in oil prices and tough environmental reviews that have delayed projects. President Obama's rejection on Friday of TransCanada Corp's proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline, while expected by many, highlighted difficulties that have been nagging the sector for months. "It's not good news for the midstream sector," said Skip York, an oil analyst at Wood Mackenzie.
Occidental's North Dakota Deal Changes Oilfield Landscape
Occidental Petroleum Corp's move to sell its North Dakota acreage likely removes a logjam that had impeded U.S. oilfield deals for much of the year, though the deal's price sets an unusually low bar for future deals and gives buyers the advantage over sellers. Oxy is selling all of its roughly 300,000 acres in North Dakota's Bakken shale formation to a private equity fund in a deal valued around $500 million, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Many U.S. Shale Firms Renew Loans
A number of U.S. shale oil and gas companies are securing unchanged or even increased credit allotments during their semi-annual loan reviews, defying expectations that banks would slash small firms' credit lines in response to low crude prices. According to a Reuters review of disclosures made by 19 independent U.S. shale oil and gas companies since Aug. 1, at least 11 have said their borrowing bases have been or will be maintained or increased. In contrast, just five talked about cuts.
ConocoPhillips Weighs Sale of North Sea Assets in Norway
ConocoPhillips Inc is weighing sale of some of its North Sea assets in Norway which may fetch as much as $1 billion, Bloomberg reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. The largest independent producer of oil and natural gas may sell assets that are operated by others including stakes in the Aasta Hansteen, Alvheim and Grane fields, Bloomberg said, citing the sources. (http://bloom.bg/1J7KJ8g). The company is also said to have contacted potential buyers…
Kemp: U.S. Crude Oil Stocks Return to 1930s Crisis Levels
U.S. commercial crude oil stocks last week hit their highest level since 1931 - when the opening of giant oil fields in the United States coincided with the Great Depression to create an enormous glut and sent prices tumbling to just 13 cents per barrel. Commercial crude stocks at refineries and tank farms across the country rose to almost 407 million barrels on Jan 23, up from 398 million the week before, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) (http://link.reuters.com/jax83w).
Will the Saudis Drive U.S. Shale Out of Business?
There has always been a close link between U.S. oil production, international prices and OPEC, so it should come as no surprise that North America's shale drillers find themselves locked in a battle with Saudi Arabia over prices and market share. Until the 1950s, the United States accounted for more than half of all global oil production. Big finds such as Oklahoma's Glenn Pool (1905) and the East Texas field (1930) drove oil price changes around the rest of the world.
Energy & Exploration Partners Files for IPO
Energy & Exploration Partners Inc has filed with U.S. regulators for an initial public offering of common stock, its second attempt to list on the New York Stock Exchange. Citigroup, Credit Suisse and RBC Capital Markets are the underwriters for the IPO, the Texas-based company said in a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Energy & Exploration set a nominal fundraising target of about $400 million. The company filed for a $275 million IPO in September 2012, but withdrew the offering in June.
Can Shale Revive China's flagging oil fields?
"I believe and will prove that our country is not deficient in oil reserves. Those comments, recorded in an illustrated history of the Songliao Basin published by China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), are attributed to Wang Jinxi, an oil field worker who became a hero of Communist China during the 1960s and 1970s. Wang's Drill Team No. 1205 was credited with doing more than any other to develop the super-giant Daqing oil field amid the frozen swamps of northeast China.
Blueknight Energy to build 160-Mile Pipeline in U.S.
Blueknight Energy Partners, today announced plans to build a major pipeline linking the emerging East Texas Eaglebine/Woodbine crude oil resource play to Oiltanking Houston, a crude oil and product terminal on the Houston Ship Channel, owned and operated by Oiltanking Partners, L.P. The project is backed by long-term shipper commitments, one of which is a transportation agreement with a joint venture between Vitol…
Kemp: Higher Oil Price Forecasts Misjudge Shale Boom
"The world of energy may have changed forever," according to Professor James Hamilton of the University of California. Hamilton, who is one of the most respected economists writing about oil, made his bold prediction in a paper on "The Changing Face of World Oil Markets", published on July 20. "Old hands in the oil patch may view recent developments as a continuation of the same old story, wondering if the high…
