Oil firm Enquest has vowed to press ahead with the development of two North Sea oil fields as the oil price dipped below $40 a barrel before leveling back up. The Aberdeen-based firm said it has approved the development of a £83million Scolty and Crathes fields about 83 miles from St Fergus, near Peterhead, in the central UK North Sea.
As the price of Brent crude flirted with dropping below $40 a barrel yesterday, directors of leading North Sea operators were asked what they might like the industry to get from Father Christmas. The answers, delivered to a full house at an Oil and Gas UK business breakfast at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre (AECC) yesterday was clear.
Cory Loegering, Apache’s regional VP and MD for the North Sea said it was possible to make money from the UK sector despite the current oil price.
The world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund says it has recovered from the losses it suffered in the second and third quarters thanks to a strategy of dumping bonds and buying up stocks and real estate.
Energy & Exploration Partners Inc. filed for Chapter 11 protection, following several other oil and gas drillers into bankruptcy. In its petition filed Monday, the company listed debt of $1 billion to $10 billion and assets of $500 million to $1 billion.
The chief executive of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has written to energy secretary Amber Rudd raising concerns over competition in the North Sea oil and gas industry. The CMA has warned the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) that plans to establish the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) could lead to information exchanges which may harm competition.
EU antitrust regulators have dropped Shell, BP and Statoil from an investigation into alleged rigging of ethanol benchmarks. The European Commission said it had, however, opened a formal investigation into the actions of Abengoa, Alcogroup and Lantmannenekfor.
Oil major Chevron is making headcount reduction from its staff in Australia as it looks to streamline costs across the globe. The company previously announced it would be cutting between 6,000 and 7,000 jobs around the world as it looks to combat low oil prices.
Seadrill have secured one year contract extensions for a pair of rigs with Chevron Thailand Exploration and Production. The company said the deal means both contracts will now end in July and August of 2019.
Nigeria’s government said it will boost spending by a fifth in next year’s budget without overstepping borrowing targets, even as oil revenue in Africa’s largest economy is set to fall. Under a three-year economic plan approved by the cabinet, expenditure will rise to 6 trillion naira ($30.2 billion), Budget and Planning Minister Udoma Udo Udoma told reporters late Monday in the capital, Abuja. Lawmakers last week authorized an increase of 466 billion naira in this year’s budget of 4.5 trillion naira to pay for fuel subsidies and troops fighting an Islamist insurgency in the northeast.
Husky Energy said it plans to keep its budget in the next year unchanged from 2015 and is planning for $40 per barrel of oil. The company said it would spend $2.9billion to $3.1billion in 2016 in comparison with $3billion this year. Husky also plans to sell some of its midstream assets in western Canada as it looks to strengthen its balance sheet.
NorSea Group has won a five-year contract with Wild Well Control for the storage of its emergency response WellContained System at NorSea facilities in Montrose in east Scotland.
Sunshine Oilsands said it has commenced first oil production from West Ells project in Alberta. The region covers around 9,856hectares and is located within the Athabasca oil sands region close to a number of other oil companies.
Repsol SA is considering selling its stake in Tangguh LNG, one of Indonesia’s largest liquefied natural gas projects, as Spain’s biggest oil company seeks to reduce debt, according to people familiar with the matter. Repsol’s 3.1 percent stake in the gas fields, operated by BP Plc, may fetch as much as $300 million in a sale, the people said, asking not to be identified as the deliberations are private.
Oilex is continuing its workover of its Cambay field in India.
A rise in oil production from the UKCS has helped to increase overall industrial production, according to new figures.
SapuraKencana Petroleum has won engineering and construction contracts including a number of extensions in a deal worth $72million. The company said it had been awarded a contract by Roc Oil to provide engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning for production and drilling on a platform in the D35 field offshore Sarawak.
Oil major Shell has taken a final investment decision to build a new unit at the Pernis refinery in the Netherlands.
Enbridge Inc has shut down a crude oil pipeline after protestors locked themselves to equipment at a valve site in Quebec. The Line 9 crude oil pipeline produces around 300,000 barrels per day.
San Leon Energy's seismic subsidiary NovaSeis has signed a memorandum of understanding with Nigeria's Northbridge Energy to provide seismic acquisition and interpretation services.
A new report has estimated Islamic State's earnings at $80million a month.
In May 2014, the new deal Gazprom signed to supply 38 billion cubic meters (bcm), which is about the amount NY state uses annually, of natural gas to China each year for the next 30 years changed the world more than anyone may have anticipated. It’s not just because it took 10 years to negotiate or was estimated to be worth about $400 billion at the time, but it seems to be the catalyst that sparked the current global oil war. In the midst of economic slowdowns in Europe and Asia and new technologies catapulting the U.S. into a leading world oil producer, OPEC decided to stop supporting oil prices and maintain market share by increasing oil production.
The search continues for 23 people still missing after a fire ripped through a platform in Azerbaijan.
Enquest reached a major production milestone, delivering its first individual day's production total of more than 50,000 barrels.
Woodside Petroleum has ditched its $8billion takeover offer for Oil Search.