US Proposal Would Allow Oil and Gas Drillers to Delay Royalty Payments
The U.S.
Halliburton Cuts 350 Jobs in Oklahoma
Oilfield services giant Halliburton on Monday said it will lay off an estimated 350 employees in Oklahoma, according to a filing with the state, as the spread of coronavirus and a price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia sent energy prices reeling.The layoffs are anticipated to begin this week at its Duncan, Oklahoma facility, the filing said, and will be permanent. The facility is expected to remain open. (Reporting by Liz Hampton, Editing by Franklin Paul)
Icahn Sells Nearly a Third of His Oxy Stake
Activist investor Carl Icahn, who has been waging a bitter battle against Occidental Petroleum Corp's board over its $38 billion acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum, cut his holdings in the oil and gas producer by nearly a third, according to an open letter to shareholders released on Friday.Icahn has opposed the deal as "hugely overpriced" and a misplaced bet-the-company gamble on oil prices rising, and urged…
TransCanada Formally Seeks Damages over Keystone XL Rejection
TransCanada Corp is formally requesting arbitration over U.S. President Barack Obama's rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline, seeking $15 billion in damages, the company said in legal papers dated Friday. Obama rejected the Canadian company's cross-border crude oil pipeline last November, seven years after it was first proposed, saying it would not make a meaningful long-term contribution to the U.S. economy. (Reporting by Ethan Lou in Toronto, Editing by Franklin Paul)
Nexen: Crews Working Around the Clock at Spill Site
Canada's Nexen Energy said on Friday its crews were working "around the clock" to clean up a pipeline leak at an oil sands site in northern Alberta that is one of North America's largest environmental spills on land. The wholly owned subsidiary of CNOOC Ltd said it detected the spill at its Long Lake facility on Wednesday afternoon. The pipeline leaked 31,500 barrels of emulsion, a mixture of bitumen, water and sand.
Reactor Spills About 3,000 Gal. of Fluid into Hudson River
Entergy Corp said on Friday that about 3,000 gallons of dielectric fluid escaped from the transformer of the Indian Point 3 nuclear power reactor in New York and leaked into the Hudson River following a transformer failure on May 9. The company intends to conclude investigations of the cause of the transformer failure by the end of June. Entergy said on May 11 that the 1,031-megawatt unit reactor, located along the Hudson River about 45 miles (72 km) north of Manhattan…
Petrobras: Competitive Fuel-price Policy Vital to Cut Debt
Brazil's state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA said on Monday that having a competitive pricing policy for domestic gasoline and diesel was crucial to reducing the company's debt. On a conference call with investors to discuss first quarter results, the company also said its fields outside the subsalt area had a decline rate of 10 percent. (Reporting by Jeb Blount; Writing by Stephen Eisenhammer, Editing by Franklin Paul)
Whiting Would Add Rigs if Oil Prices Hit $70 Per Barrel
Whiting Petroleum Corp , the largest oil producer in North Dakota, plans to keep 11 drilling rigs operating through next year, though it would add "a couple of rigs" if crude prices rise to $70 per barrel, Chief Executive Jim Volker said on Thursday. The company posted a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss on Wednesday helped by sharp cost cuts. Volker told analysts on a Thursday conference call that he plans…
U.S. Crude Oil and Natgas Reserves Rise in 2013
U.S. proven crude oil and lease condensate reserves increased 9.3 percent to 36.5 billion barrels in 2013, up from 33.4 billion barrels in 2012, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a report Thursday. EIA also said proven wet natural gas reserves gained 9.7 percent to 354 trillion cubic feet in 2013, up from 322.7 tcf in 2012. North Dakota's crude oil and lease condensate proved reserves, meanwhile, surpassed those of the federal Gulf of Mexico, ranking it second only to Texas among U.S.
Enbridge Southern Access Pipeline Start Date Pushed Back
Canada's largest pipeline company Enbridge Inc said on Thursday its 300,000 barrel per day Southern Access Extension pipeline from Flanagan to Patoka, Illinois, is now expected to be in service late in 2015. The new in-service date is later than previously announced. In July Marathon Petroleum Corp said it expected Southern Access to be in service by mid-2015. (Reporting by Nia Williams, Editing by Franklin Paul)
Venezuela Amuay Return to Normal to Take at Least 48 Hours
Venezuela's Amuay oil refinery will need at least 48 hours to return to full operations after a blackout shut down the complex on Tuesday night, workers said on Wednesday. Officials say electricity supply has been re-established at the country's biggest oil refinery and that operations are gradually starting up again. (Reporting by Sailu Urribarri, Editing by Franklin Paul)
Occidental Petroleum Profit Beats Expectations as Production Jumps
Occidental Petroleum Corp posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday as U.S. oil production jumped. The company posted third-quarter net income of $1.21 billion, or $1.55 per share, compared with $1.58 billion, or $1.96 per share, in the year-ago period. Analysts expected earnings of $1.57 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Daily average production in the U.S. rose by 20,000 barrels to 282,000 barrels.
Cameco Resumes Jet Boring at Cigar Lake Mine
Canadian uranium miner Cameco Corp said on Thursday that it has resumed jet-boring, a system of using water to carve out cavities in the ore body, at its Cigar Lake, Saskatchewan mine. Cameco said in July that problems with freezing the ore and the ground around it had led to a halt in production at Cigar Lake, the company's newest mine that opened in March. Cameco operates the mine and owns 50 percent of it…
Brent Crude Futures Turn Higher Ahead of Inventory Data
Brent crude futures turned higher on Wednesday, recovering from a 13-month low as the dollar weakened against the euro and as traders covered shorts ahead of weekly U.S. government data on the nation's oil inventories. Continuing geopolitical threats to supply also continued to support crude futures, brokers and traders said. September Brent crude was up 38 cents at $103.40 a barrel at 9:18 a.m. EDT (1318 GMT), after falling to $102.37. (Reporting by Robert Gibbons, Editing by Franklin Paul)
Talisman Says Approached by Repsol about Deal
Talisman Energy Inc said on Wednesday it has been approached by Repsol , a day after a report that the Spanish oil producer was considering a bid for Canada's No. 5 oil company. Talisman, which operates in North America, southeast Asia and the North Sea, has long been considered a takeover target as its stock slumped on weak natural gas prices and a poor performance from its North Sea operations. Talisman…
US Crude Oil Futures On the Rise
U.S. crude oil futures rose over $1 per barrel on Monday to $104.18 on expected inventory drawdowns in the U.S. as market participants sold Brent and bought U.S. crude. (Reporting By Jessica Resnick-Ault, Editing by Franklin Paul)
US Crude Turns Lower as Investors Lock in Profits
U.S. crude futures turned lower in late morning New York trade as investors took some profits from the previous day's gains even as tensions between Russia and the West remained high, traders said. U.S. crude was down 4 cents at $103.15 per barrel at 11:21 a.m. (1520 GMT). Brent for September pared gains, rising 7 cents to $107.96. (Reporting by Josephine Mason, Editing by Franklin Paul)
Chesapeake to Face Trial on Bid-rigging
A judge in Michigan has ruled that Oklahoma-based Chesapeake Energy Corp. must face a criminal trial on a charge of bid-rigging with competitor Encana Corp at a 2010 state land lease auction, citing evidence of a conspiracy between the companies that drove state lease prices down sharply. The ruling, issued on Wednesday by Judge Maria Barton of Michigan's Cheboygan County District Court, dismissed two other criminal charges brought against Chesapeake by the office of Michigan's Attorney General.
Seaway Pipeline Resumes Ops After Maintenance
Operations on the Seaway Crude Pipeline resumed June 20 following four-day maintenance, according to a notice on its website. The pipeline continues to perform as expected with no restrictions on volumes from Cushing, the notice said. It added that daily throughput will fluctuate depending on shipper nominations of crude oil and their capacity on delivery points owned by third parties. Seaway Pipeline is a joint venture between Enterprise Products Partners L.P. N and Enbridge Inc..
NY Approves of NRG Plan to Refuel Dunkirk Coal Plant with Natgas
The New York Public Service Commission on Thursday approved of NRG Energy Inc's plan to refuel the 435-megawatt Dunkirk coal-fired power plant in New York with natural gas, the state utility regulator said in a release. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino, Editing by Franklin Paul)
