Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Natural Gas Production News

China's 2024 refining output is expected to decline by a rare amount due to weak demand

China's oil refining throughput in the year 2024 will be the lowest in over two decades, barring 2022 when the world was hit by the pandemic. Plants have reduced production in response to stagnant demand for fuel and low margins. National Bureau of Statistics data showed that the world's second largest refining industry, after the U.S., processed 1.6% less crude last year. Calculations showed that the figure is about 14.13 millions barrels per day. This was down from a record of 14.7 million bpd in 2023.

Senate Democrats ask Republicans to delay the hearing on Trump's Energy Secretary nominee

Democratic members of the U.S. Senate Energy Committee asked the Republican chairman of the panel to postpone Tuesday's confirmation hearing of Donald Trump's nominee to head the Department of Energy. They cited a delay in the paperwork. The hearing for Chris Wright will be held on Wednesday. Wright intends to step down from his position as Liberty Energy's CEO and Chairman once he has been confirmed as Energy Secretary. It is expected that he will help Trump's energy dominance policy by increasing the production of U.S. gas and oil.

Diamondback Energy reports lower oil prices in the fourth quarter

Diamondback Energy, the U.S. producer of shale oil, announced on Monday that its production prices were lower in the fourth quarter compared with the previous three months. Crude oil prices dropped about 6% during the quarter of October-December, due to a patchy recovery from the pandemic, China's slow economy, and an excess supply worldwide. Prices are down nearly 12% compared to a year earlier. The company reported that the average realized price…

Orlen, a Polish company, plans to invest 380 billion Zlotys (about $3.8 billion) by 2035

Orlen, Poland's oil retailer and refiner, plans to invest between $84.3 billion and $91 billion by 2035. This compares to the 320 billion zlotys in investments that were envisaged for an eight-year period under the 2022 Strategy. Orlen shares fell as much as 3,2% after the announcement of Orlen's strategy, but they were only down 0.1% as of 1017 GMT. The new strategy is the result of the audit by the management of over 50 projects that were undertaken by previous executives…

Norway's gas production will be slightly lower than the record set in 2025.

The Norwegian Offshore Directorate said that the Norwegian natural gas production is expected to decline slightly this year. It rose 6.9% to a new record of 124 billion cubic meters (bcm). Norway is now Europe's biggest natural gas supplier following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, 2022. It provides about 30% of all gas imported to the European Union. The NOD published data on Thursday showing that Norway's output of gas increased from 116 billion cubic meters in 2023. This was a year heavily affected by maintenance issues.

India's ONGC partners with BP to increase production at its largest oil field

India's leading explorer Oil And Natural Gas Corp said on Wednesday that energy giant BP would act as a technical service provider in order to boost oil and natural gas production from the largest producing field of India, located off India's West Coast. BP has pledged an increase in oil and gas production from the Mumbai High Field, discovered in 1974. ONGC announced this in a filing to the stock exchange. According to the tender document published last year, the field's production peaked at 471,000 barrels of oil per day in March 1985.

Norway's oil and gas production fell in November but exceeded forecast

Norwegian Offshore Directorate said Friday that although the combined oil and natural gas production in Norway decreased from November of last year, it was still 2,6% higher than the official forecast. Norway is Europe's biggest supplier of natural gases and oil. However, output can vary from month to months depending on maintenance and other stops at over 90 offshore fields. The total oil, gas liquids, natural condensate and gas production stood at 0.674 standard cubic metres each day.

China's oil refinery production in November increased by 0.2% year/year

China's refinery output in November increased slightly compared to last year, ending a seven-month drop, according to official data released on Monday. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), according to its data, showed that refiners processed 58.51 millions metric tons of crude last month. This is equivalent to 14,24 million barrels of oil per day. It was online in late September, when the percentage of users had increased to 60-70%. The demand for refined products has improved since late last month.

Cenovus Energy predicts increased production by 2025 for new projects

Cenovus Energy, a Canadian energy company, forecasted higher oil and natural gas production in 2025. It expects to benefit from the new projects that will be coming online. According to LSEG, the company expects upstream production of between 805,000 and 845,000 boepd by 2025. The midpoint is higher than analyst estimates of 820140 boepd. The company anticipates between 770,000 and 810,000 boepd this year. The U.S. Energy Information Administration has predicted that power consumption in the U.S.

EIA: US natgas production will decline in 2024 as demand reaches record levels, EIA reports

The U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) Short Term Energy Outlook, released on Tuesday, predicted that U.S. Natural Gas production would decline by 2024 and demand would rise to a new record. EIA predicted that dry gas production would decline from a record 103,8 billion cubic feet per a day in 2023 down to 103.2 bcfd by 2024 due to fewer drilling activities. The producers have reduced drilling following the average monthly Henry Hub spot gas price.

Russia's oil production in 2024 is expected to decline from 518-521 million T

Interfax news agency reported that Deputy Prime minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday that Russia will produce between 518-521 millions metric tons of oil (10.36-10.42million barrels per day). This amount is also expected in 2025. In September, he had predicted a production of 515-521 millions tons. In 2023, Russia produced 529,6 million tons of gas condensate, despite a reduction in supply due to an agreement with other OPEC+ members.

Equinor and Shell form UK Oil and Gas Joint Venture

The Norwegian group announced on Thursday that Equinor, a Norwegian oil company, and Shell would combine their British offshore assets in order to form a new entity owned by each party at 50%. The joint venture is expected to be the largest independent producer in the British North Sea by 2025, Equinor stated in a press release. Equinor announced that the company would be based in Aberdeen in Scotland and be established to maintain domestic oil and natural gas production as well as energy security in Britain.

EIA reports that US oil production fell by the most in September since January.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) data showed that the crude oil production in the United States fell by 157,000 barrels a day (bpd), month-over-month, to 13,20 million bpd during September. This was the biggest decline since January. As Hurricane Francine, and Hurricane Helene made landfall in the Gulf of Mexico in September, many oil and gas facilities were forced to close for extended periods of time. EIA data released on Friday showed that output from the U.S.

Trump Energy Pick writes ESG report praising oil and gas, while downplaying climate worries

According to a report that he wrote as the CEO of oilfield service company Liberty Energy, Donald Trump's nominee to head the Energy Department believes fossil fuels will end world poverty. He says this is a bigger problem than the "distant threat" of climate change. Chris Wright stated in a February report entitled "Bettering Human Lives" that the energy transformation has not yet begun, and that while climate change is a problem, it's not the biggest threat to humanity.

US natural gas drillers will increase output in 2025, reversing a year-long cut

The U.S. Natural Gas producers will increase output in 2025 after a series production cuts this past year. Rising demand from LNG export plants should raise prices, which had dropped to multi-decade lows. According to the latest U.S. Energy Information Administration outlook, U.S. natural gas production will decline in 2024, for the first drop since 2020 when the COVID epidemic reduced demand. After the average monthly spot price at the U.S. Henry hub benchmark, drillers started cutting back on gas production.

Report: Senior aide of Argentina's Milei claims Shell is eyeing LNG investment

According to the newspaper La Nacion, the cabinet chief of Argentine president Javier Milei cited Shell as a possible investor in a future liquefied gas (LNG), project that will be managed by YPF, Argentina's state-owned oil company. La Nacion reported that Guillermo Francos, the Cabinet Chief, said during an event the major energy company had shown "strong interest" for a possible LNG investment in the nation. Cynthia Babski, Shell's spokesperson in an email…

Report: Senior aide of Argentina's Milei claims Shell is eyeing LNG investment

According to the newspaper La Nacion, the cabinet chief of Argentine president Javier Milei cited Shell as a possible investor in a future liquefied gas (LNG), project that will be managed by YPF, Argentina's state-owned oil company. La Nacion reported that Guillermo Francos, the Cabinet Chief, said during an event the major energy company had shown "strong interest" for a possible LNG investment in the nation. Cynthia Babski, Shell's spokesperson in an email…

YPF, the Argentine oil company, is focusing on Vaca Muerta and a production boost by 2025.

The CEO of Argentina's state-owned oil company YPF, Horacio Martin, said that the firm expects shale production to rise by 30 to 40 percent next year. Marin said that YPF, during a conference call to discuss its financial results, will concentrate its capital investments in its main shale resources, specifically the massive Vaca Muerta Formation. Vaca Muerta has the second largest shale-oil reserve in the world and is also home to one of the largest shale-gas reserves.

COP29: Which are the main issues at the UN Climate Summit in Baku

The U.N. Climate Summit COP29, which will take place in Baku on November 15th, has been called the "climate financing COP" because its main goal is to decide how much money each year should be allocated to help developing countries deal with climate-related expenses. This discussion may be difficult following the reelection of Donald Trump as former U.S. president on Tuesday. A climate denier, Trump's campaign promised to remove the United States from the historic 2015 Paris Agreement for fighting climate change a second.

Researchers say that a late-season storm could disrupt the US oil production by 4 million barrels.

Researchers said that a late-season tropical storm, which is predicted to intensify this week into a Category 2 hurricane in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, could reduce U.S. crude oil production by approximately 4 million barrels. Storm Rafael, which was in the Caribbean Sea on Monday evening, is expected to move into the Gulf of Mexico via a path that will take it through oil-producing regions. The National Hurricane Center reported that winds could reach up to 100 miles per hour (161 km/h) on Tuesday.

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