China Opens Up to Foreign E&P Firms
For the first time, China will this year allow foreign companies to explore for and produce oil and gas in the country, opening up the industry to firms other than state-run energy giants, as Beijing looks to boost domestic energy supplies.The long-awaited opening accompanies a reshuffle of the so-called "midstream" pipeline business, but experts say it may not excite immediate interest from global drillers because of the poor overall asset quality of China's hydrocarbon resources.From May 1, foreign firms registered in China with net assets of 300 million yuan ($43 million) will be allowed to take part in o
Sinopec Gets Weirong Green Light
China's Sinopec has received approval from the ministry of natural resources to develop shale gas at the Weirong gas field in the southwestern province of Sichuan, the refiner said on Tuesday.The company plans to build 166 wells at the gas field with total production capacity of 3 billion cubic meters (bcm) each year.The first phase of construction is underway, with two testing wells reaching daily output of 313,000 cubic meters and 253,000 cubic meters, respectively, the company said.China's shale gas production of about 10.9 bcm in 2018 accounted for less than 7% of total gas output.
Guyana Puts Oil Auctions on Hold
Guyana has put planned oil auctions on hold as the impoverished South American country works to establish a Department of Energy to oversee the energy boom, Minister of State Joseph Harmon said on Monday.Since 1999, Guyana has awarded a group led by Exxon Mobil Corp hundreds of oil blocks along Guyana's maritime borders with Venezuela and Suriname. Their finds are turning Guyana, a country with no history of oil production and relaxed energy regulation, into one of Latin America's hottest prospects for oil investments.Exxon…
Russia to Decide on Oil Output Hike by Exxon-led Project
A decision on whether to allow the Russian ExxonMobil-led Sakhalin-1 project to raise oil output is expected by the end of April, a spokesman for Russia's Ministry of Natural Resources said on Friday. "The experts are working on the case ... A decision will be taken by the end of April," he told Reuters. ExxonNeftegaz, ExxonMobil's subsidiary in Russia, did not reply to a Reuters request for comment. The Sakhalin-1 oil project, off Russia's Pacific coast, has ditched plans to raise output to 250…
Canada Government, Industry to Collaborate on Clean Tech
The Canadian and Alberta governments and three energy companies said on Thursday they will spend C$70 million ($51.14 million) to develop three new clean technology projects, aimed at cutting costs and carbon emissions in the country's oil sands. Northern Alberta's vast oil sands hold the world's third-largest crude reserves but are costly to operate and require carbon-intensive production methods, factors that have prompted a number of international oil majors to pull back from the patch in recent months.
Iraqi PM Says Kurds Exporting More Oil Than Allocated
Iraq Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the autonomous Kurdish region was exporting more than its allocated share of oil as the country seeks to comply with an OPEC output cut. In November, OPEC agreed to cut output by 1.2 million barrels per day from January 2017 to support prices. Iraq, OPEC's second largest producer, agreed to reduce output by 200,000 bpd to 4.351 million bpd. "We call upon the Kurdistan region to show more transparency and clarity in its exporting of oil," state television quoted Abadi as saying. He gave no figures or further details.
NYK Joins Study for LNG Bunkering in Yokohama
NYK is participating in a study launched by Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and Tourism (MLIT) to explore the feasibility of LNG bunkering in Yokohama. This study is examining the technological and infrastructural requirements for establishment of an LNG bunkering hub at the port of Yokohama to supply LNG as fuel to ships. A kick-off meeting of the study’s steering committee was held on June 9 for the creation of a facility development plan by the end of the year. In accordance with the NYK Group’s medium-term management plan…
Pipeline Outage Almost Halves North Iraq Feb Exports
Oil exports from northern Iraq fell by almost half to an average of 350,067 barrels per day (bpd) in February due to an outage of the pipeline to Turkey, the Kurdistan region's Ministry of Natural Resources said on Monday. The nearly three-week outage is a big blow to Kurdistan, an autonomous region within Iraq that depends on revenue from its oil exports and is in the throes of an economic crisis induced by low crude prices. In February, the region received $303.9 million in revenue from its exports…
Iraq's KRG to Pay Oil Firms as per Contracts
Iraq's Kurdistan region said on Monday it would pay international oil companies according to their contractual entitlements in 2016 as it grapples with an acute economic crisis. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which owes oil companies billion of dollars, began making ad-hoc payments last September to exporters that had previously gone unpaid for months. Some investment banks estimate that given the global slump in crude prices, foreign oil companies will in fact be paid slightly less under the new mechanism.
New Partnership to Train Iraqi O&G Workers
Stirling Group has partnered with the EU Iraq Energy Center (EUIEC) to provide risk management training to the Iraqi oil and gas industry to help build a highly skilled and competent workforce. The specialists in health, safety and environmental services, headquartered in the UAE, will deliver a series of three day courses on dealing with uncertainty and risk in the global energy sector from its training center in Erbil, Kurdistan. Aimed at graduates and developed in partnership with the KRG Ministry of Natural Resources’ Competency Development Program…
Iraqi Kurdistan Minister Says No Link Between Oil Sales and Islamic State
The Iraqi Kurdish minister for natural resources said on Tuesday reports that the regional government was helping smuggle oil from fields controlled by Islamic State militants were "wild imagination and unsubstantiated". Speaking at a conference in London, Ashti Hawrami reiterated comments made in a statement by the Kurdistan Regional Government's ministry of natural resources on Monday that every drop of oil flowing through its system was accounted for. "We do everything to ensure that every barrel is accounted for," Hawrami told the conference.
Iraqi Kurds Reassert Right to Export Oil to US Despite Court Ruling
Kurdistan reasserted its right to export oil independently to the United States and other countries on Tuesday despite a court ruling in favour of the Iraqi federal government, which has sought to block crude sales from the autonomous region. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans on Monday dismissed the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)'s bid to overturn an earlier ruling against a planned sale of oil to an unidentified buyer in the U.S. Iraq's federal government filed a lawsuit in a U.S.
Rosneft, Gazprom to Receive Four Arctic Fields
Ministry of the Environment sent to the government documents on the transfer of "Rosneft" and "Gazprom" licenses for the development of four more fields on the Arctic shelf, he said in an interview with RIA Novosti Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Minister Sergei Donskoi. Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Minister Sergei Donskoi also added that the decision to suspend the issuance of licenses for parts of the shelf is not accepted, and the Department continues to issue licenses for the development of the Arctic shelf in accordance with current legislation, according to RIA Novosti.
Iraqi Kurdistan Says Oil Pipeline Sabotage Cost $501 mln
Repeated sabotage of the pipeline carrying crude from Iraq's Kurdistan region to Turkey had cost it $501 million since July 1, the region's Ministry of Natural Resources said. It had lost $251 million in revenue as a result of "persistent theft" from the pipeline "in addition to $250 million damage to KRG finances caused by the explosion on the pipeline at the end of July", it said. (Reporting by Isabel Coles)
Shale Revolution in US Cannot Alter Arctic Oil
Even the so-called shale revolution in the United States did not stop striving for sustainable business with the direct support of the state to extract "Arctic" oil Don wrote on his page to Facebook. In the Arctic sector of the US (Alaska) are two sedimentary basins - the North Slope of Alaska and the Beaufort. In these basins exploration conducted most intensively since the late 1970s until 1996, he reminded the politician. Much of this work has been concentrated in the eastern part of the basin of the North Slope of Alaska…
Tanker Carrying Kurdish Oil Reappears Unladen off Israel
A tanker carrying crude oil from Iraqi Kurdistan reappeared unladen on Aug. 19 about 30 kilometres off the coast of Israel, ship tracking data on Reuters showed. This is the second time the Kamari has appeared in the area in the last two weeks carrying Kurdish oil. The tanker Kamari was partly laden north of Egypt's Sinai on Aug. 17, tracking showed, before it turned off its satellite transponder until early on Aug. 19. It was not possible to determine where the oil had been delivered to or who the buyer was.
Genel Energy Transaction in Own Shares
Genel Energy plc announced that on 13 August 2014 it purchased from J.P. Morgan Securities plc 155,000 ordinary shares at an average price of 750.2887 pence per share. The purchased shares will be held as treasury shares. Following the above purchase, Genel Energy plc holds 155,000 ordinary shares in treasury, and has 280,093,198 ordinary shares in issue (excluding treasury shares), of which 246,554,897 are voting ordinary shares and 33,538,301 are suspended voting ordinary shares. The Company's…
Iraq Kurds say Oil Production Unaffected by Onslaught
Oil production from Iraqi Kurdistan remains unaffected by the onslaught by Islamic State militants, the region's Ministry of Natural Resources said in a statement on Saturday. "Oil production in the region remains unaffected, and is being delivered to both the domestic and export markets," the statement said. "Indeed, the (regional government) is expecting that the producing companies will ramp up production in the coming weeks". (Reporting by Isabel Coles, editing by William Hardy)
Iraqi Kurdish Oil Nears US Port Despite Concern in Washington
A tanker carrying crude oil from Iraqi Kurdistan is just one day away from arriving at a U.S. port, according to ship tracking satellites, despite Washington's long-standing concern over independent oil sales from the autonomous region. The United Kalavrvta tanker, which left the Turkish port of Ceyhan in June carrying oil delivered via a new Kurdish pipeline, is due to dock in Galveston, Texas on Saturday, Reuters AIS Live ship tracking shows. A sale of Kurdish crude oil to a U.S. refinery would infuriate Baghdad…
Update: U.S. to Seize Kurdish Oil from Tanker off Texas
U.S. authorities are set to seize a cargo of oil from Iraqi Kurdistan anchored off the Texas coast after a judge approved a request from Baghdad, raising the stakes in an oil sales dispute between Iraq's central government and the autonomous region. The tanker United Kalavrvta, carrying some 1 million barrels of Iraqi Kurdish crude oil worth more than $100 million, arrived near Galveston Bay on Saturday, but has yet to unload its disputed cargo. The U.S. judge's approval of the request from Baghdad deals another blow to the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) attempts to establish its own oil sales…
