Baker Hughes Clinches Contract for PNG Gas Field
Baker Hughes, now part of General Electric, has won a major contract to provide a wide range of services to develop Papua New Guinea's first offshore gas field which is sees as a new model to help producers adapt to a world of low oil prices. GE Oil and Gas completed its merger with Baker Hughes last month to become the world's second largest oilfield services company, bringing together traditional drilling and pumping gear with technology such as software, sensors and three-dimensional printing. The contract in Papua New Guinea (PNG)…
Norwegian Union Threatens Strike at Statoil, Shell, Eni Platforms
About 150 oil platform workers would go on strike, potentially disrupting output from several Norwegian fields, if they fail to get a pay deal by midnight on Friday, their union said on Tuesday. Lederne, the smallest of the three Norwegian unions representing oil industry workers, said the strike would target platforms at Eni's Goliat, Shell's Draugen and Statoil's Kvitebjoern, Oseberg East and Gudrun fields. "We believe it would mean shutting down production on those platforms," a spokesman for the union said. The five fields together produced 326…
Noble Group's Lenders in Talks on $2 Bln Credit Line
Noble Group's main banks are in talks to decide whether to give the commodity trader an extension on its credit line or force it into a restructuring or liquidation, the Financial Times newspaper said on Tuesday, citing sources with knowledge of the discussions. Banks including HSBC, Societe Generale, ABN Amro, Citigroup and ING, have appointed legal advisers to consider the case for extending the $2 billion line of credit, "so the Hong Kong-based company can continue its lengthy search for a major new investor to recapitalise the business", the FT said.
Petrobras CEO Sees Need to Empower Middle Management
The head of Brazil's state-controlled oil giant Petrobras has called in an international consultancy firm to make middle management at the scandal-hit firm more proactive. Petroleo Brasileiro SA last week posted a record first-quarter operating profit but Chief Executive Pedro Parente said the company's turnaround was still far from complete and one area where the company needs to improve is management indecision, which worsened with the revelations of the corruption scandal known as Operation Car Wash. "What we are seeing is that mid-level managers are very afraid of taking decisions," Parente said at a conference in London on Tuesday.
Total Expands Oil Search Offshore West Africa
Total has signed a deal to explore for oil and gas offshore Mauritania, the French company said on Friday, expanding the scope of its search for new fields in the deep waters off West Africa's Atlantic coast. Under an agreement with Mauritania's state-run oil company SMHPM, Total will take a 90 percent operating stake in Block C7, which covers 7,300 square kilometres, and SMHPM will take the remaining 10 percent. The deal comes 10 days after Total announced that it had taken a 90 percent stake in the deepwater Rufisque Offshore Profond Block in neighbouring Senegal, as oil majors show an increasing interest in the largely untapped region.
Solarworld Files for Insolvency
Germany's Solarworld has filed for insolvency proceedings, defeated by Chinese competition which has flooded the market with cheap solar panels. "Due to the ongoing price erosion and the development of the business, the company no longer has a positive going concern prognosis, is therefore over-indebted and thus obliged to file for insolvency proceedings," Solarworld said in a statement on Wednesday. It added that it was assessing if affiliated companies would also have to file for insolvency. Earlier this year Solarworld announced staff cuts after reporting increased losses.
Germany's EnBW mulls 200 MW of wind power addition
German energy utility EnBW plans this year to install 64 new wind turbines across 16 sites with a total generating capacity of more than 200 megawatts (MW), having doubled its wind power capacity in 2016, a top executive said in a newspaper interview due to be published on Saturday. Following are details from the interview with EnBW's head of generation portfolio development, Dirk Guesewell, due to be published in southwestern German newspaper "Heilbronner Stimme". * EnBW commissioned 200 MW of wind power capacity in 2016 and acquired four wind parks with 55 MW of capacity, he said. * Its total wind power generating capacity now amounts to 450 MW.
Petronas Says RAPID Project on Track for 2019 Start-Up
Malaysia's state oil firm Petroliam Nasional Berhad said on Thursday its new $27 billion refining and petrochemical complex project in the southeast Asian country is on track for start-up in 2019. Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday that Saudi Aramco had shelved its plans for a partnership with the company, known as Petronas, on the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project, raising questions about its future. RAPID, located within the Pengerang Integrated Complex in the southern Malaysian state of Johor…
Tanker Docks at Libya's Es Sider Port to Load First Crude Cargo in Two Years
An oil tanker docked at the east Libyan port of Es Sider on Monday to load the first cargo of crude since the terminal reopened following a two-year closure, port officials said. Es Sider, Libya's biggest export terminal, had been shut due to a blockade by a military faction since 2014. It reopened in mid September, but repairs were needed before tankers could load at the port, and its capacity remains far below its pre-conflict level of 350,000 barrels per day (bpd). Es Sider is one of four ports seized in September by forces loyal to east Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar…
African Petroleum Pulls out of Liberia Offshore Blocks
West Africa-focused oil and gas company African Petroleum is pulling out of its two Liberian offshore prospecting licences after it failed to attract new partners, it said in a statement on Wednesday. Production-sharing contracts for the LB-08 and LB-09 blocks formally expired in June, and African Petroleum had been in negotiations with the Liberian authorities for an extension to allow it time to seek out new investors. It blamed challenging market conditions for exploration and a lack of commercial discoveries in Liberia for a lack of industry interest in the blocks.
BP Decries Deepwater Horizon Film as Inaccurate
BP has criticized the new "Deepwater Horizon" film as being an inaccurate Hollywood dramatization of the deadly oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. "The Deepwater Horizon movie is Hollywood's take on a tragic and complex accident. It is not an accurate portrayal of the events that led to the accident, our people, or the character of our company," the British oil and gas company said in a statement on its website. "Deepwater Horizon," which is released in the United States on Friday, focuses on the hours before and after the explosion from a well blowout on the BP rig in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010…
Danish Watchdog Asks Audit Office to Investigate DONG Energy IPO
A Danish political watchdog on Wednesday asked the national audit office to investigate the role of key parties involved in the share market flotation of offshore wind farm developer DONG Energy, including Goldman Sachs. DONG Energy's initial public offer (IPO) in June raised a gross 17 billion crowns ($2.6 billion) for the Danish state and a consortium of investors led by Goldman Sachs. The sale meant the Wall Street bank doubled an 8 billion- crown investment made just two and a half years earlier, fuelling criticism in Denmark that the previous government sold an 18 percent stake to the Goldman consortium too cheaply.
China's Coal Producers Seek to Increase Output
China's coal producers have sought government approval for a plan to increase output, sources said on Thursday, partially reversing efforts to cut capacity that has sent prices soaring and depleted domestic stockpiles this year. The State Council must now decide whether to give the greenlight to the draft proposal, which was discussed at a meeting in Beijing of major producers, provincial officials and the state planner, the National Development and Reform Commission, three sources familiar with the gathering said. Any output increases could take effect as early as Saturday…
Energean to Buy Two Israeli Gas Fields
The partners in Israeli offshore gas fields Tamar and Leviathan have agreed to sell their rights in two smaller fields to Ocean Energean Oil and Gas Ltd for $148.5 million to comply with a government requirement. Delek Group, which has controlling interests in several gas fields in the eastern Mediterranean, is being forced by the government to sell off some assets in an effort to open the sector to competition. Energean will buy Texas-based Noble Energy's 47.06 percent stake in the Tanin and Karish fields and the rest from Delek subsidiaries Avner Oil Exploration and Delek Drilling, Avner said in a statement on Wednesday.
Iran's Crude Oil Exports above 2.1 Mln BPD in July
Iran's crude oil exports in July were more than 2.1 million barrels per day, the oil ministry's news agency SHANA cited a senior Iranian oil official as saying on Wednesday. Director of the International Affairs Department at National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Mohsen Ghamsari told SHANA the total amount of crude and gas condensate exports by Iran reached 2.740 million bpd in July. He said 600,000 bpd out of that figure were condensate exports. "Exports of crude are now at a good level but ... have not yet touched that of the pre-sanction level…
Egypt's Siemens Power Plants to go online
Power plants built by Germany's Siemens in Egypt are set to go online in December this year and will reach full capacity in May 2018, the Egyptian prime minister's office said on Sunday. Egypt signed an 8 billion-euro ($8.9 billion) deal with Siemens in June 2015 that calls for three combined-cycle power plants with a capacity of 4,800 megawatts each, plus 12 wind farms, and is designed to boost the country's electricity generation by 50 percent. Some plants will go online in December with a combined capacity of 4,440 megawatts…
Eni Reaches Deal with Exxon on Mozambique Gas Project
Italian oil firm Eni has wrapped up long-running talks to sell a multi-billion dollar stake in its planned Mozambique liquefied natural gas (LNG) development to Exxon Mobil, two sources with knowledge of the matter said. "The deal is done but won't be announced for several months at Exxon's request," one of the sources said. Eni declined to comment, while a spokesman for Exxon said, "We do not comment on market rumours or speculation". The offshore gas reserves already discovered by Eni in Area 4 are large enough to need a…
Saras Starts Repaying Iranian Oil Debt
Italian oil refiner Saras has paid back 100 million euros ($112 million) of the debt it owes Iran for cargoes of crude oil taken before sanctions were imposed on the country in 2012, the company's managing director said on Monday. Saras, which had an outstanding debt of around 350 million euros with Teheran, paid a first instalment of 50 million euros in the second quarter and another 50 million euros in July. "We expect a smooth repayment over time," Dario Scaffardi told analysts on a conference call on second-quarter results.
Trans Niger Pipeline Shut Down
Nigeria's Trans Niger Pipeline, one of two major pipelines that carries the Bonny Light crude grade for export, was shut down on Wednesday after a leak was found, industry sources familiar with the matter said. The shutdown comes just as repairs were completed on the Nembe Creek Trunk Line that also moves the major export grade. Force majeure was declared by Royal Dutch Shell on Bonny Light exports after the NCTL was closed in early May. One source referring to a memo sent out to participants in the TNP said that it was expected to be down for at least a week and would see around 130,000 barrels per day of production shutdown.
Leak Halts Major Fuel Pipeline into Germany
A major pipeline feeding oil products from the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp refinery hub into Germany was shut this week after a leak was reported in the Netherlands, the operating company said in a statement on Thursday. The Dutch-German Rotterdam-Rijn Pijpleiding (RRP) distillates pipeline, partly owned by Royal Dutch Shell and BP, will be closed for at least a day as the company investigates the leak and makes any necessary repairs. The 24-inch pipeline has a capacity of 2,000 cubic metres per hour, according to the RRP website.
