Glencore's former head of oil is charged with bribery in a UK court
Alex Beard, former Glencore head of oil, appeared before a London court Tuesday to answer bribery allegations relating to Glencore's operations in Africa. Beard's lawyer told the London Westminster Magistrates' Court that he will plead guilty. The 57-year old is accused of two counts of conspiracy for corrupt payments made to officials of government-owned oil companies and government officials in Nigeria from 2010 to 2014 and in Cameroon, between 2007 and 2008. Beard is the most prominent commodity trader in Britain to be charged with alleged corruption. He joined Glencore from BP in 1995, which was the largest trading desk of that time.
Gunvor Returns to Profit in 2019
Energy trader Gunvor Group returned to profit in 2019 after its first net loss a year earlier, helped by record earnings in its U.S. division, and said business so far in 2020 remained strong.The Geneva-based firm, which reported a 2019 net profit of $381 million after a loss of $330 million in 2018, said on Tuesday it was also helped last year by earnings from gas trading and its European refining business.But the group, one of the world's top five oil traders, said revenue dipped to $75 billion in 2019 from $87 billion in 2018.Gunvor, which launched its U.S.
New Offshore Acreage Licensing to Drop 60% in 2020, Rystad says
Newly licensed offshore oil and gas exploration acreage is likely to fall by about 60% and onshore acreage by 30% compared with 2019 levels, Rystad Energy has said, as the Norwegian energy market analytics company expects more than half of the world’s planned licensing rounds to be canceled this year due to the combined effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and the low oil prices."This year was slated to be another remarkable year for exploration with about 45 countries launching at least 52 lease rounds, about 60% of them in offshore areas. The decline in the expected number of lease rounds compared to last year’s 69 was not a sign of fewer countries offering new licenses…
Angola Hopes Reforms Will Aid Oil Assets Sales
Angola is hoping sweeping economic reforms will smooth an ambitious plan to sell key state assets, including stakes in oil company Sonangol, a share of Puma Energy and more than 100 other enterprises.Africa's second biggest oil exporter is in a rush for cash as it struggles to cope with moribund crude prices, slumping output and years of mismanagement that left Sonangol bloated and inefficient.In August, the government published an extensive list of assets that will be offered to investors via public offerings, stake sales, asset sales or tenders.The swift timeline aims for an initial public offering of Sonangol in 2022…
Seadrill Ivory Coast Contract Terminated
Seadrill Partners, the deep-water drilling contractor for the petroleum industry, has received an early termination notice from an unnamed operator for the West Vencedor rig contract offshore Ivory Coast.The contract was expected to start in 3Q 2019. In January, the rig received a six-well contract with three option wells.The West Vencedor unit had recently completed its work in Myanmar and will now stay in Southeast Asia to be marketed for additional opportunities.Seadrill Partners is expected to receive a lump sum early termination payment…
For the Global LNG Industry, is the FSRU Honeymoon Over?
A giant vessel docked at the port of Moheshkhali in Bangladesh two months ago, propelling the populous but poor nation into the fast-expanding club of liquefied natural gas (LNG) buyers.The Excellence is the latest floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), a type of carrier that has proliferated since 2015 as many countries switch to a cleaner and increasingly cheaper fuel than oil and coal.But the young FSRU industry has been beset by more project delays than successes in the past 12 months as fluctuating energy prices, shipping rates…
Tullow to Pay Seadrill $254 mln Over Ghana Dispute
A London judge ordered Tullow Oil to pay rig owner Seadrill around $254 million saying Tullow was wrong to end a rig contract in Ghana on grounds of force majeure over a maritime dispute, Tullow said on Tuesday.Tullow cancelled the contract for Seadrill's West Leo rig in December 2016 after Ghana set a drilling moratorium on its TEN offshore oil and gas field which is located in waters then claimed by both Ghana and Ivory Coast.An international tribunal last year ruled in favour of Ghana, allowing Tullow, the lead operator of the project, to resume drilling.
OPEC Set to Prolong Oil Cuts
OPEC will likely agree to extend production cuts for another nine months, delegates said on Tuesday as the oil producer group meets this week to debate how to tackle a global glut of crude. OPEC's de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, favours extending the output curbs by nine months rather than the initially planned six months, as it seeks to speed up market rebalancing and prevent oil prices from sliding back below $50 per barrel. On Monday, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih won support from OPEC's second-biggest and fastest-growing producer, Iraq, for a nine-month extension and said he expected no objections from anyone else.
Armed Piracy in West African Waters Rise
Bulk of attacks occurred off Nigeria. Armed attacks on ships in West African waters nearly doubled in 2016, with pirates increasingly focused on kidnapping their crew for ransom off Nigeria's coast, a report said on Tuesday. A recent spate of attacks off Somalia, meanwhile, may also indicate a resurgence of piracy in East Africa as a result of less vigilance, the Oceans Beyond Piracy (OBP) project said. OBP, a project of the privately funded One Earth Future Foundation that encourages cooperation across the international maritime community to tackle piracy, recorded 95 attacks in West Africa's Gulf of Guinea in 2016, up from 54 the previous year.
In Demand: Hoegh LNG’s Sveinung Stoehle
Satisfied with the recent opening of a new floating LNG import terminal in Turkey plus contract successes in Africa and Asia, Hoegh LNG CEO and president, Sveinung Stoehle, cautiously lets us into his stylish Oslo offices for a bit of “disclosure”. The Hoegh business model is winning out, and now six floating storage and regasification units, or FSRUs, are in operation with four newbuilds on the way. The terminal in Turkey was built in just six months: “It would be years, not months, for a land-based gas terminal,” Stohle asserts. That risk argument has Hoegh LNG in just about every gas-trading discussion in the developing world, so we asked to hear more.
Strike at CNR's Ivory Coast oil and gas fields extended
Workers have extended a strike indefinitely at Canadian Natural Resources' (CNR) Baobab and Espoir oil and gas fields in Ivory Coast, the SISPOO oil workers union said on Saturday. A 72-hour strike was called early on Wednesday over the firing of workers and was extended on Friday after the parties failed to reach an agreement. "As no solution is in sight, we hereby announce the extension of the strike until the conflict is resolved," SISPOO said in a letter to CNR on Friday. The union told Reuters on Wednesday that no gas was coming from any of CNR's platforms, and that output from those sites represented about 30 percent of Ivorian oil and gas production.
Total Buys Stake in US Gas Projects Group Tellurian
French oil and gas major Total said on Tuesday it will buy a 23 percent stake in Tellurian Investments, a private U.S. gas projects operator, for $207 million as it pursues its drive to secure more downstream gas market share. Total, which is paying $5.85 a share for the stake, and Tellurian will jointly develop an integrated gas project, from producing gas in the United States to delivering liquefied natural gas (LNG) to international markets. "Investing in Tellurian at an early stage will give us the opportunity to potentially strengthen our mid- and long-term LNG portfolio thanks to a very cost competitive project…
Cyberhawk soars in Middle East market with oil and gas
World leader in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) inspection and survey, Cyberhawk Innovations, has reported another impressive year in the international oil and gas sector. Most recently, the company has secured a three year framework with Dubai Petroleum for UAV inspections across all of its offshore assets. The agreement, which has the option to renew on a yearly basis for two years, was awarded to Cyberhawk following the successful completion of work for Dubai Petroleum in 2015. The Middle East continues to be a lucrative market for UAV inspection as interest and confidence in the technology grows.
Total to operate Ivory Coast LNG Project
The CI-GNL (Ivory Coast LNG) consortium led by Total has been awarded the rights to build and operate a liquefied natural gas (LNG) re-gasification terminal in Ivory Coast with a capacity of 3 million tons per year. The decision announced by the Government of the Ivory Coast on October 4th was followed by the signature of the shareholders’ agreement in Abidjan between Total, which will operate the project with a 34% interest, national companies PetroCI (11%) and CI Energies (5%) as well as SOCAR (26%), Shell (13%), Golar (6%) and Endeavor Energy (5%).
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.
Ivory Coast Establish Total-led LNG Consortium
Ivory Coast signed a partnership pact on Tuesday to create a consortium headed by France's Total to build a liquid natural gas (LNG) import terminal that could begin receiving gas shipments by mid-2018. Ivory Coast has emerged from years of political turmoil to become one of Africa's fastest growing economies and demand for electricity is increasing by 10 percent annually, according to the energy ministry. "The arrival of LNG in Ivory Coast opens a new era in the production of electricity," Energy Minister Adama Toungara said at a signing ceremony in the commercial capital Abidjan.
CNR Puts Off Planned Ivory Coast Investment
Canadian Natural Resources (CNR) is postponing $300-400 million in planned investment on its Ivory Coast offshore blocks pending a rebound in crude prices, its general manager in the West African nation said on Tuesday. After spending around $1.5 billion on drilling new wells on its Espoir and Baobab fields in the last two years, CNR has raised its output from 18,000 barrels per day (bpd) in late 2013 to its current level of between 40,000 and 45,000 bpd. However, oil prices have tumbled over the past two years. Brent crude was trading at around $47 per barrel on Tuesday, down from over $100 per barrel in late 2014.
Ivory Coast Aims to Double O&G Output by 2020
Ivory Coast aims to roughly double oil and gas output by 2020 as it pushes for foreign investment in offshore exploration, the head of state oil and gas company Petroci said on Wednesday. While it has developed natural gas deposits for domestic consumption, French-speaking West Africa's largest economy has ignored its energy sector for decades as the government concentrated on developing agricultural exports. Authorities are now seeking to develop offshore reserves in the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea. "Today we have around 60 blocks. We've awarded about 20…
Al-Qaeda's Claims Attack on Algerian Gas Plant
Al Qaeda's North Africa branch has claimed responsibility for Friday's rocket-propelled grenade attack on an Algerian gas plant operated by Norway's Statoil and BP as part of its "war on the Crusader interests everywhere". The attack caused no casualties or damage but forced the facility to be closed as a precaution, though state energy company Sonatrach said Algeria's gas production had not been affected. "This operation has destroyed your claims to have defeated 'terrorism' as you like to describe it," the Islamist militant group said in a statement directed at the Algerian government and Western oil companies.
Coming Wave of Gas puts Focus on Finding New Shores
Energy giants such as Royal Dutch Shell and Total are looking to build terminals and power plants in new markets to soak up the industry's rapidly burgeoning supply. Companies have invested billions in plants to produce liquefied natural gas (LNG) in places such as Australia and the United States. But gas demand growth is slowing, prices are down and the LNG volumes companies are set to produce will exceed those even major buyers such as China and Japan can absorb. That has turned attention to the downstream market and opportunities to create new markets from Ivory Coast to remote Indonesian islands by building gas-fired power plants…
