Inpex, a Japanese company, has begun engineering design work for Indonesia's Abadi Liquefied Natural Gas project
Inpex Corp., a Japanese oil and natural gas exploration company, started Wednesday the front-end design process of its Abadi project for liquefied gas in Indonesia as the government pressed the company to speed up development. Shell's withdrawal from the project, the request by the previous administration for the LNG plant to be moved onshore and the change of the development plan that included a component to capture and store carbon were all factors in years-long delays.
Brazil adheres to OPEC+ Cooperation letter; No output caps
The Brazilian energy ministry announced on Tuesday that the country has decided to adhere the OPEC+ declaration of cooperation. This formalizes a decision it first made in 2023. Brazil is the biggest oil producer in South America. According to the country's oil regulator, its output will reach 4.32 million barrels equivalent per day by 2024. The group will include nations like Saudi Arabia and Russia, but it is not expected to participate in the coordinated output cap.
Reforms to the Mexican oil company Pemex will give it more flexibility in forming partnerships
A bill that was sent to Congress Wednesday will allow Pemex, the state-owned Mexican oil company, to work with private companies. This will ease restrictions imposed by the previous administration. The bill is expected to be passed by a large margin. Pemex can then enter into exploration and extraction contracts with private companies, after these contracts were canceled by the former president Andres Manuel Obrador. In August, just before Lopez Obrador’s successor Claudia Sheinbaum assumed office in October of that year…
Petrobras Q4 total production down 10.5%; sales and exports are also down
Petrobras, the state-owned oil company in Brazil, reported a 10.5% drop in its fourth-quarter total oil and gas production compared to a year ago. Sales and exports were also down. Petrobras, Latin America’s largest oil company, reported a total oil and natural gas production of 2,63 million barrels equivalents per day (boed), for the three months ending in December. Total sales of oil and gas, as well as derivatives, were down around 8% compared to a year ago, with 2.83 million barrels a day (bpd).
Brava Energia's shares surge on the potential sale of assets and oilfield resumption
The shares of Brazilian energy firm Brava Energia soared Friday after the company announced that it was in talks with banks about potential asset sales. The company also received approval from Brazil's oil regulator for the resumption of production at a major oilfield. Brava shares closed 10.6% higher than the benchmark Brazilian stock index Bovespa which fell 0.5%. Brava announced in a Friday statement that they were negotiating with two banks for mandates to evaluate possible partnership transactions or asset sale.
BP and its partners invest $7 billion into a carbon capture project in Indonesian Papua
BP and its partners announced that they will invest $7 billion into a carbon-capture project and the development of gas fields in Indonesia's easternmost Papua Region, which could unlock an additional 3 trillion cubic feet in gas resources. The British oil producer announced its investment in London on Thursday during a meeting between President Prabowo Subito, who was visiting London. The company said that production at Ubadari is expected to begin in 2028. Gas from the field will be processed in the Tangguh liquefied gas plant in West Papua.
Indonesian regulator confirms Tangguh LNG disruption
Indonesia's upstream gas and oil regulator SKK Migas confirmed that there was an outage on the third train at BP's Tangguh liquefied gas (LNG), facility in West Papua. It said operations would begin to resume from Saturday. Hudi Suryodipuro, spokesperson for SKK Migas, said on Thursday that an accident occurred on Train 3 Tangguh LNG in November 16 due to instrumentation problems at an onshore reception facility. This caused an emergency shut-off valve to be closed.
Texas voters elect conservative Craddick as oil regulator
Texas reelected Christi Craddick, a conservative incumbent in her third term as the state's chief oil regulator. This is a victory for the industry which has seen its production increase during her tenure. According to the most recent government statistics, Texas, which is home to the Permian basin, is the United States' largest oil producer, producing around 5.8 million barrels of crude oil per day. The Texas Railroad Commission, which Craddick is set to chair for six more years, regulates this industry.
Indonesia targets increased liquefied gas production, regulator says
Indonesia wants to increase its liquefied gas production by 1 million tons per year in order to reduce the amount of cooking fuel imported, said the head of Indonesia's upstream oil regulator on Tuesday. The new president Prabowo Subianto has pledged that he will achieve energy independence through biofuels and oil and gas production. He cited the rising geopolitical uncertainty which could affect supply. Indonesia's Energy Minister aims to double the domestic production of popular cooking fuel LPG from 1.7 million tonnes per year.
Nigeria licenses the first floating LNG plant to export and use domestically
Nigeria's oil regulator granted UTM Offshore Limited on Friday the first license for operating a floating LNG plant to tap flared natural gas from an ExxonMobil field in the Niger Delta. As Africa looks to tap into its gas reserves, such plants are popping up all over the continent. Government estimates indicate that Nigeria has over 209 trillion cubic foot of gas reserves but loses more than $1 billion annually due to gas flaring. UTM's floating vessel…
Nigeria's Dangote Refinery and others are seeking 597,700 barrels per day of oil in the face of tight supply
The Nigerian oil regulator announced that despite a tight supply, Nigerian refineries, including the Dangote refinery, have increased their domestic crude needs for the second half 2024 from 483,000 barrels per day in the first. In a Friday statement, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission said that it was only able secure 177.777 bpd of oil from producers, which is far below the amount the refiners requested. In particular, the Dangote Refinery with its 650…
Sources say that the incoming Mexican government wants to open Pemex up to oil partnerships.
According to four sources with knowledge of the situation, the incoming Mexican government will encourage the state oil company Pemex, to form equity partnerships with private oil firms, a model that is not popular with the president. This move is to increase reserves in the face of a massive debt. These partnerships will be similar to previous Pemex joint-ventures with private oil companies, known as "farm-outs", that Mexico pursued via an energy reform implemented a decade earlier.
OPEC+ Outlines Record Oil Production Cut; Mexico Balks
OPEC, Russia and other allies outlined plans on Thursday to cut their oil output by more than a fifth and said they expected the United States and other producers to join in their effort to prop up prices hammered by the coronavirus crisis.But the group, known as OPEC+, said a final agreement was dependent on Mexico signing up to the pact after it balked at the production cuts it was asked to make. Discussions among top global energy ministers will…
Brazil Oil Bidding Points to Future Auction Success
Brazil's mines and energy minister said the positive results of Thursday's round of bidding for the country's offshore oil blocks point to successful auctions later this year of the so-called Transfer of Rights area and pre-salt oil find.Minister Bento Albuquerque said that Thursday's auction surpassed expectations, following the conclusion of bidding.Oil regulator ANP said that the auction would result in cumulative bonus payments of 8.9 billion reais ($2.16 billion).($1 = 4.1138 reais)(Reporting by Gram Slattery, Marta Nogueira and Rodrigo Viga Gaier;
Saudi, Russia Closing in on Record Oil Cut Deal
OPEC and it allies held talks on Thursday on record oil output curbs of about 15 million barrels per day (bpd) or more, roughly 15% of global supplies, to support prices hammered by the coronavirus crisis, sources involved in the discussions said.They said the plan included cuts of about 5 million bpd from producers outside the group known as OPEC+ and could be made gradually, as the group seeks to overcome resistance from the United States whose…
Norway Investigates Hammerfest LNG Outage
Norway's oil regulator said on Friday it was investigating the causes of an outage earlier this month at Equinor's Hammerfest LNG plant in the north of the country.The plant converts natural gas produced from the Arctic Snoehvit field into liquid natural gas (LNG) which is exported by tankers."Equinor shut down the plant on 11 March 2019 in order to repair deficiencies in a number of safety valves there.
Brazil, Petrobras Paving Way for Giant Tender
Brazil's government will announce "within days" a deal with state-run oil company Petrobras to settle a multi-billion-dollar contract dispute and clear the way to auction billions of barrels of oil off of the Brazilian coast, a minister said on Monday.Economy Minister Paulo Guedes told journalists that his team sat down recently with officials at the Mines and Energy Ministry, and that "the deal is done."Reuters reported earlier on Monday that Petroleo Brasileiro SA…
Brazil Government to Pay Petrobras $9 Bln
The Brazilian government reached a landmark deal to pay state-controlled oil company Petróleo Brasileiro SA $9.058 billion for revising a transfer-of-rights oil contract, Energy Minister Bento Albuquerque said on Tuesday.Albuquerque told reporters after a meeting in Brasilia that the agreement opens the way for the government to auction off the excess oil in the transfer-of-rights area, a giant pre-salt oil reserve off the coast of Rio de Janeiro.The payment to Petrobras, as the company is known, is expected to take place on December 13.
Brazil Breaks Oil Output Record in January
Oil companies produced 3.17 million barrels per day (bpd) on average in Brazil in January, a volume 20.4% larger than seen in the same month a year earlier and an output record for the country, oil regulator ANP said on Wednesday. Natural gas production increased 22% over January 2019 to 138.7 million cubic meters per day on average last month, also a record. The deepwater, pre-salt field known as Lula accounted for a third of all oil production in Brazil, reaching 1.05 million bpd of crude on average in January, ANP said.
Big Oil Stuns Brazil in Back-to-back Auction Flops
Major global oil firms snubbed a second Brazilian oil auction in a row on Thursday, passing up offshore blocks and forcing officials to reconsider a bidding system that gives a privileged position to state-run Petroleo Brasileiro SA.The only block awarded in Thursday's bidding went to Petrobras, as the Brazilian state-run firm is known, and Chinese state firm CNODC, a unit of China National Petroleum Corp, which offered the minimum bid. Four other blocks received no bids.The result…
