Total E&P has applied to the UK Government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change for consent to increase production on the Dunbar field. A public notice from the French energy company said it had made its application for the field, 133km off the east of Aberdeen, in accordance with all the necessary documentation.
Libya’s oil output dropped below 400,000 barrels a day after the divided country’s internationally recognized government in the east closed a port run by a rival administration in the west, in a push to assert control over more energy assets and exports. Production fell after crude exports halted at the port of Zueitina, Mohamed Elharari, a spokesman for the National Oil Corp.’s management in the western city of Tripoli, said Wednesday by phone. Libya pumped 430,000 barrels a day in October, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Zueitina will be closed until further notice, and tankers seeking to load crude there must now register with a rival NOC management loyal to the internationally recognized government based in eastern Libya, according to a Petroleum Guard spokesman Ali al-Hasy. Vessels registered with the NOC administration in Tripoli, seat of an Islamist-backed government, are “illegitimate” and won’t be permitted to load at Zueitina, he said.
Trinity Exploration & Production said its chief executive has resigned from the company. The firm said it comes after the pending divestment of nearly all of the company’s onshore assets. Joel Pemberton’s resignation was accepted by the board of directors, effective December 31st this year.
South Korea's S-Oil Corp 010950.KS said on Monday it expected global demand for refined oil products to continue to grow in the fourth quarter and next year, supporting refining margins. S-Oil, whose main shareholder is Saudi Aramco SDABO.UL, reported a $10.97 million operating income in the third quarter, compared with 606.2 billion won in the second quarter, due to lower refining margins and inventory related losses.
Atlantic Petroleum said during the last month it produced more than 30,000 barrels of oil equivalent from the Chestnut, Ettrick and Blackbird fields. The company said production in September had been impacted by the shut down in the Chestnut field due to planned scale squeeze operations.
Total SA, Europe’s second-biggest oil company, scaled back its production target for 2017 as it announced a further round of investment cuts and project delays to protect its dividend. Total expects to produce 2.6 million barrels of oil equivalent a day, compared with a previous forecast of 2.8 million barrels a day, the company said Wednesday before holding an investor day in London. The measures are a sign that oil majors are extending their belt-tightening into next year and 2017 after companies from Chevron Corp. to Royal Dutch Shell Plc announced large spending cuts for 2015.
Few things have more potential to spook the oil market than the prospect of Russia joining forces with OPEC. Speculation that such a move was afoot last month drove crude to its biggest three-day gain in 25 years. Despite the market buzz, there are sound economic and technical reasons why this is unlikely to happen.
Erin Energy was hit with a net loss of $9.2million in the second quarter of the year. The company said following tie-in of the Oyo-8 and Oyo-7 wells oil production had averaged 7,642 barrels per day. Erin Energy said it generated revenue of $15.3million from crude lifting in July and received an additional $26.5million as advance payment for a scheduled August lifting of Oyo crude this month.
European natural gas traders have one more reason to be bearish: Norway is overproducing and output at the nation’s biggest field is poised to reach an eight-year high. Europe’s second-largest supplier pumped more gas than forecast in five of the first six months this year, Norwegian Petroleum Directorate data show. Output from the Troll field is set to climb 23 percent to 33.5 billion cubic meters (1.2 trillion cubic feet) in the year through September, according to an estimate by Eclipse Energy Group, a London-based consultant. Norwegian output is rising amid a global oil and gas glut that’s pressuring prices and cutting profit for companies including Troll’s operator Statoil ASA. Brent crude is trading close to the six-year low it reached in January, and gas prices in the U.K., a European benchmark, are at the weakest for this time of year since 2009.
North Sea oil production will rise to its highest level so far this year in September, up 5.6 percent on August at 1.988 million barrels per day (bpd), according to loading schedules. These large volumes are likely to pressure North Sea price differentials and weigh on Brent crude futures LCOc1, which are trading below $50 a barrel due to a global supply glut Refinery turnarounds also loom, with plants using less crude due to maintenance work. "It's a lot of oil for the time of year when refiners prepare to go offline for seasonal maintenance," said Abhishek Deshpande, an oil analyst at Natixis in London.
Two companies are leading the way as they look at production efficiency challenges and how they can be overcome in the North Sea oil and gas industry. In a new whitepaper, both EnQuest and Wintershall explain how they are also working on future considerations and development plans within the UKCS.
CNOOC Limited has started production from the Luda 10-1 comprehensive adjustment project in the Bohai Sea off China. A wellhead platform has also been built at the oilfield in Liadong Bay, where there are currently 13 producing wells.
Oil Search has increased its production targets after achieving a record quarterly output in the second quarter of the year. The company said it now expects its production to be between 27 and 29mmboe (million barrels of oil equivalent). A previous estimate by the Papua New Guinea focused oil and gas producer had been between 26 and 28mmboe.
Norwegian production is up 10%, according to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD).
Oil production in Nigeria is forecast to falter due to underinvestment according to analysis from research and consulting firm GlobalData. Despite more than 37 billion barrels remaining in proven reserves the country faces challenges with need for reform and transparency to reverse this trend. However Young Okunna, an upstream analyst covering Sub-Saharan Africa, said Nigeria’s gas sector could be rejuvenated by capitalising on the chance to rebuild investor confidence following the election of President Muhammadu Buhari.
DualEx Energy has ceased natural gas production from one of its fields in Hungary. The company said production from its Peneszlek field in the north east of the country was stopped due to a natural depletion of two remaining wells.
OPEC nations can withstand a drop in crude prices to the lowest in more than five years, while shale drillers will probably be the first to curb production amid the collapse, the United Arab Emirates’ energy minister said. Oil slumped almost 50% last year, the most since the 2008 financial crisis, amid a supply surplus that the U.A.E. and Qatar estimate at 2 million barrels a day. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is battling a US shale boom by resisting production cuts, signaling its readiness to let prices fall to a level that slows American output, which has surged to a three-decade high.
Norway is considering tapping reserve funds to shield western Europe’s biggest oil producer from the worst slump in crude prices in more than half a decade. Prime Minister Erna Solberg said the government is now “on alert” to respond to the rout. “If the economic situation requires it, we can react quickly,” she said yesterday at a conference in Oslo organized by Norway’s confederation of industry. A 56% plunge in the price of Brent crude since a June high has undermined Norway’s currency and beaten back its stock market.
A project headed by Tamarack Valley Energy experienced a "record" exit production rate toward the end of last year. Canada-based Tamarack said its drilling program in the Wilson Creek contributed to a rise in production rates during the last two weeks of December. Rates averaged at 9,700 boe/d with all 10.9 net wells drilled in the fourth quarter were brought on production last month.
Wintershall has suspended onshore production in Libya until further notice following unrest in the country. The company said it had taken the decision following armed hostilities which had taken place at more oil export facilities. The Libyan National Oil Company (NOC) had declared Force Majeure in mid-December.
Oil major BP said production has started from the Kinnoull field in the North Sea. The Kinnoull reservoir, which was developed as part of a wider rejuvenation of the Andrew field area, is tied back to BP’s Andrew platform 230km east of Aberdeen. The development of the field is expected to allow production from the field to be extended by a further 10 years.
The world’s top oil producer said yesterday it had no intention of cutting output to prop up oil prices. Saudi Arabia also blamed commodity market speculators for driving down the price of a barrel of crude to its lowest level in years. Ali Al-Naimi, the Middle East country’s oil minister, said he was “100% not pleased" with prices but they would improve, although it was unclear when. The comments came at the 10th Arab Energy Conference in Abu Dhabi as the global oil and gas industry grapples with a plunge in oil prices to about $62 per barrel from well over $100 in the summer.
Iraq said a collapse in oil prices and the cost of fighting Islamic State militants may force the country to review its plans to boost crude production this decade. “It may be necessary to revisit our ambitious plans for the next five years,” Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister Rowsch Shaways said at a conference in London, without specifying what measures the country might take. “But we are committed to progress in this vital economic field with regard to production and export capacities.”
Nigeria’s two oil unions began an indefinite strike that they say will curb exports from the West African nation responsible for pumping more than a quarter of the continent’s crude. “You will soon begin to see shutdowns of our oil flow,” Emmanuel Ojugbana, a spokesman of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, said. Ohi Alegbe, an Abuja-based spokesman for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. and the Oil Ministry, declined to comment on exports. Any reduction in pumping would coincide with a collapse in the price of Nigeria’s biggest source of revenue.
Norwegian Energy Company ASA (Noreco) said production at the Huntington field has been further delayed. Work had been due to resume this month but the company said there had been an incident during restart of the CATS riser platform. A spokesman said it would be closed until at least Thursday.