China to Boost Energy Reserve Capacity, Support Unconventional Gas Exploration
China said on Friday it will bolster the capacity of the country's energy reserves and offer lower gas and electricity charges to key industries, as it looks to ensure energy supply and offset the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.In energy announcements on the first day of the parliament, known as the National People's Congress (NPC), authorities also pledged to boost the country's oil and gas network and continue to support exploration for unconventional gas reserves.The National…
Greek PM May Seek Sanctions Against Turkey in Gas Row
Greece and Cyprus will push their EU partners to penalize Turkey, including the possible option of sanctions, if Ankara is verified to have started drilling for gas west of Cyprus, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Sunday.The discovery of lucrative energy reserves in the eastern Mediterranean has drawn into sharper focus long-standing tensions between Turkey and the Greek Cypriot government.A Turkish drill ship has been anchored west of Cyprus since May. Cyprus and Greece…
Philippine Senators Ask Duterte to Disclose China Energy Plan
Philippine opposition senators have demanded President Rodrigo Duterte reveal details of joint energy exploration plans with China, warning such a deal risked affirming Chinese territorial claims that are not recognized under international law.Early this year, the two countries set up a joint panel to work out how to explore offshore oil and gas in areas that both claim, without addressing the explosive issue of who has the sovereign rights to them."Signing the Chinese deal will make the Philippines recognize an unlawful 'co-ownership' with China…
Argentine Invites Oil Companies to Submit Offshore Proposals
Argentina has called on oil companies to submit proposals for offshore exploration areas, the country's official gazette said on Friday, looking to exploit under-explored parts of the country's continental shelf and other potential oil basins.Oil companies, including Shell and Statoil, have said they are mulling bidding in auctions to be held later this year.The country faces fierce competition to attract the billions of dollars of investment needed to develop deepwater reserves.
Philippines, China Mull South China Sea Energy Cooperation
The Philippines on Friday identified two areas in South China Sea where joint exploration for oil and gas may be undertaken with China, including one in territory that both sides have argued over for years. The two countries have agreed to set up a special panel to work out how they can jointly explore in part of the hotly contested waters without having to address the issue of sovereignty, something experts say would be extremely complex. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's spokesman…
Mexico's Oil Reform a Boon for Hard-hit Oil Service, Seismic Firms
Oil service and mapping firms still emerging from an industry recession have received a boost from about $800 million of data sales to energy firms considering bidding for Mexican oil and gas blocks. Mexico will on Wednesday hold its most important auction since a 2013 reform ended the 75-year monopoly on the energy sector held by state-run oil firm Pemex. The government of President Enrique Pena Nieto hopes the deepwater sale will attract tens of billions of dollars of investment to turnaround a slump in the country's oil output. Seven previous auctions drew investment pledges of $61 billion.
Saudis Favor New York for Aramco Listing
New York float would demand more disclosure than London; NYSE would give Aramco access to larger pool of capital. Saudi Arabia favours New York for the main foreign listing of state oil giant Aramco, even though some financial and legal advisers have recommended London as a less problematic and risky option, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. A final decision on where to stage what could be the world's largest initial public offering will be taken by Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman - or MbS as he is known - who oversees the kingdom's economic and energy policies, the sources said.
US DoE Unfairly Criticized: Kemp
The U.S. Department of Energy has become a lightning rod for criticism in parts of the Republican Party and the fossil fuels industry unhappy about the Obama administration's energy and climate policies. Presidential candidate Rick Perry promised to abolish the Department of Energy along with the Departments of Commerce and Education during a debate in 2011. Perry's views on the department's usefulness may evolve now he has been selected to lead it in a future Trump administration ("Trump picks climate sceptic Perry for top U.S. energy job", Reuters, Dec. 14).
Big Oil Revels in Trump Triumph
The U.S. energy industry on Wednesday reveled in Republican Donald Trump's presidential victory, expecting him to be a strong advocate for more oil and gas output and to cut red tape that has held back billions of dollars of investment in new projects. The world's largest energy market saw a boom in oil and gas output under Democratic President Barack Obama's administration, as improved technology led to the development of shale energy reserves that had previously been too expensive to produce.
As Iran Oil Tenders Near, Investors Still in the Dark on Terms
Two years after Iran pledged to open up its oil industry in anticipation of the lifting of sanctions, foreign companies say they still have little information about Iranian oil fields and contract terms, hindering investment decisions. Bosses from oil majors including BP, Total, Eni, Royal Dutch Shell and LUKOIL have all travelled to Tehran this year, since the EU sanctions ended in January. Their teams spent weeks meeting local officials ahead of investment tenders due to start next month.
Private Equity Emerges as Last Resort Energy Lender
U.S. energy companies facing a likely cut in their bank loans are seeking a costly alternative - borrowing from private equity firms at hefty interest rates to stay alive for longer. In a sign of the times, U.S. oil and gas producer Clayton Williams Energy Inc said this month it was borrowing $350 million from private equity firm Ares Management LP to replace an equivalent loan from a group of banks. The loan from Ares is the first publicly-known deal of its kind, and does not come cheap.
BNP Paribas Exits US Energy Loan Market on Oil Price Rout
France's largest bank BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA> is pulling out of a niche U.S. energy lending business for the second time in four years after plunging oil prices dragged what was once seen as some of the safest energy loans into losses. "Given the current environment in the oil and gas markets and the short to medium term outlook, BNP Paribas has decided to halt the redevelopment of its reserve-based lending business," BNP said in a statement. BNP shut its reserve-based lending business in New York two weeks ago after 13-year-low oil prices stoked concerns of rising loan defaults among borrowers…
Big Oil Shrinks and Plots the Way Forward
Companies seek to safeguard growth for when market recovers. As oil and gas companies cut ever-deeper into the bone to weather their worst downturn in decades, boards have adopted contrasting strategies to lead them out of the crisis. Crude prices have tumbled around 70 percent over the past 18 months to around $35 a barrel, leading to five of the world's top oil companies reporting sharp declines in profits in recent days. Executives at energy firms face a tough balancing act…
Islamic State Attacks Libya's Es Sider Port
Islamic State fighters clashed with security forces near Libya's Es Sider oil export terminal on Monday killing two guards and setting an oil storage tank on fire, witnesses and a Petrol Facilities Guard source said. The source told Reuters that the tank had been hit by a rocket during the fighting, causing a huge fire, and that two Islamic State suicide car bombers had attacked the area around the port after which its fighters had retreated. According to Mohamed al-Manfi, an oil official based in eastern Libya, the tank was holding 420,000 barrels of oil.
Iraq PM Visits Oilfield Where Locals Harass Lukoil
Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi visited the supergiant West Qurna-2 oilfield on Tuesday after the state-run South Oil Company warned output could be affected unless protests by locals demanding jobs were defused. The SOC last week sent a report to the oil ministry asking it to defuse protests by villagers and residents of areas near some of the southern fields where most of Iraq's crude is produced, including West Qurna-2. Hundreds of locals recently blocked some entrance to Iraq's giant southern West Qurna-2 oilfield…
Rare Run of Oil Finds is Little Respite for Price-Hit Explorers
Exploration firms have made a rare run of oil and gas discoveries in recent weeks as more targeted search strategies bear fruit, but they offer little respite to a sector that remains severely bruised by the oil price slump. Global exploration and production (E&P) companies that scour frontier lands and seas in search of new energy reserves have had meagre success in recent years, putting many under pressure before a near halving of oil prices since last June. Seven successful…
ABB to Strengthen China's Transmission Grid
Zurich, Switzerland, April 9, 2015 – ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, has won orders worth over $100 million to supply converter transformers and components including wall bushings and circuit breakersfor the Lingzhou-Shaoxing ultrahigh-voltage direct current (UHVDC) transmission link in China. The link will be the 7th 800 kilovolt (kV) UHVDC transmission system in the country and will help to deliver more electricity from remote power plants in China’s interior to growing urban areas, over longer distances with fewer losses.
SOCAR to Resume Drilling at Umid Gas Deposit
Azerbaijan state energy company SOCAR plans to resume drilling at the Umid gas deposit in the Caspian Sea this week, SOCAR's first vice-president said. SOCAR had halted drilling at Umid in October and issued a tender for the joint exploration of Umid and Babek, two large gas deposits in the Caspian Sea, with total preliminary reserves of around 600 billion cubic metres (bcm). "Drilling will be conducted along with a tender procedures," Khoshbakht Yusifzade told reporters, adding that drilling expenses will be taken into in the contract.
UK Council Defers Shale Permit Decision
A local English government council has voted to delay a decision on whether shale gas firm Cuadrilla can progress with two fracking projects, in a case that is being closely watched by the industry and environmental campaigners. Cuadrilla's projects near Blackpool in north west England are expected to become Britain's first shale gas production wells, kick starting the government's drive to develop the uncoventional resources to help stem a decline in North Sea energy reserves. However council officials had last week proposed that the applications should be rejected when the council voted.
Sudan to Drill Hundreds of Wells to Boost Reserves
Sudan's oil minister says the country will drill more than 250 wells in the coming year, aiming to boost its energy reserves by 65.4 million barrels of oil and 300 billion cubic feet of gas, state media reported on Tuesday. When South Sudan seceded in 2011, it took with it three-quarters of the former unified country's oil wealth, estimated at 5 billion barrels of proven reserves by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Oil exports had been the main source of the foreign currency used to support the Sudanese pound and to pay for food and other imports…
