US courts have been good to Jack Grynberg, netting him hundreds of millions of dollars in disputes with some of the world’s largest oil and gas producers since 1984.
Despite that fortune, the 83-year-old oilman says he’s fed up with America’s legal system and has taken his biggest suit yet -- a battle over profits from Kazakhstan’s most valuable oil fields -- to Switzerland.
Grynberg is suing a consortium led by BP Plc, saying the oil giant backtracked on a 1991 deal promising him 20 percent of the profits from Kazakh fields he helped find. Instead, Grynberg says in the lawsuit that BP cut him out and struck deals directly with the Kazakh government, greased with bribes paid by a CIA agent who was arrested in 2003.
Natural gas, once seen as a clear winner in President Barack Obama’s push for cleaner power, isn’t looking like much of a champ these days.
That so-called bridge that gas was supposed to be, leading America away from dirtier fossil fuels such as coal and toward renewable power, just got a lot shorter under the final Clean Power Plan released by the US Environmental Protection Agency on Monday.
The agency will reward early investments in wind and solar power to get the nation generating 28 percent of its power using renewables by 2030, up from a previously proposed 22 percent.
The more aggressive goal weakens natural gas’s role in America’s energy future in favor of a quicker transition to zero-carbon sources of electricity. It’s yet another blow for gas producers who’ve seen prices for their fuel slide amid a glut of supply from shale formations.
Chevron has ruled out any output from its deepwater Big Foot project until at least 2018 as the oil major continues to investigate the cause of a setback at its facility.
A total of nine tendons sunk to the sea floor after initially losing buoyancy.
The Big Foot deepwater oil project in the Gulf of Mexico had been months away from a planned initial startup for later in the year.
Secretary of State John Kerry is meeting Gulf foreign ministers Monday to provide assurances that the US commitment to the oil-rich region isn’t wavering after last month’s landmark nuclear agreement with Iran.
The region is confronting unprecedented “circumstances and challenges,” Qatar’s Foreign Minister Khalid Al-Attiyah said in Doha, the country’s capital, before the talks with Kerry. “We are aiming to achieve security and peace and stability with the help of the US.”
The nuclear pact Iran reached with world powers in Vienna has rattled Gulf countries skeptical about rival Iran’s atomic and regional ambitions. They worry that Iran will use the agreement to deepen its involvement in Arab affairs as sanctions are lifted and its economy and revenue expand.
Oil fell to a six-month low in London as Iran vowed to boost production immediately after sanctions are lifted and manufacturing in China slowed.
Brent futures declined as much as 2.6 percent, extending an 18 percent drop in July that was the biggest in seven months. Iran can raise output by 500,000 barrels a day within a week of sanctions ending, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
A Chinese private factory gauge released on Monday fell to a two-year low in July, while an official index on Saturday slipped to the lowest in five months.
Goodrich Petroleum has signed an agreement to sell its reserves and leasehold in the Eagle Ford shale for $118million.
The move will see the company retain 58% of its undeveloped leasehold in the play for future development and sale.
The asset which is being sold produced an average of around 2,850barrels of oil equivalent per day during the first quarter of 2015.
As a flotilla of gasoline tankers steams across the Atlantic Ocean to the US, European motorists are paying more for their gasoline because Americans are driving more than ever.
Surging demand and rising prices for gasoline in the US are luring about double the number of tankers compared with 2014, boosting shipping rates to the highest seasonal levels in seven years.
With so much being exported, fuel prices in Europe have increased almost four times faster than crude since February to the equivalent of more than $6 a gallon.
The flotilla underscores the rising thirst for fuel after oil prices fell by half since June 2014 and the U.S. economy improved. Americans are driving record miles, raising consumption of gasoline and profit margins for refiners.
Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida and republican candidate for the US presidency, has told a group of voters he would favour ending government subsidies for all forms of energy.
Bush said this would include oil and gas if he makes it to the White House next year.
This video, which was posted online by environmental group 350 Action, shows the brother of former President George W. Bush saying that if he was elected, he would "phase out, through tax reform, the tax credits for wind, for solar, for the oil and gas sector, for all that stuff".
Oil companies’ least-loved business over the past five years is proving to be their lifeline.
Margins from refineries in northwest Europe rose fivefold last quarter to the highest since at least 2003, data from Total SA show. In the preceding quarter, the share of profit from processing crude and chemicals at Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc was four times higher than the same period a year earlier.
The turnaround follows last year’s end to an oil boom that tripled the cost of crude for processing since 2009 and spurred a focus on drilling instead of refining. A decade-long doubling of refining capacity in China also swamped European efforts to rein in supply. Crude’s slump in the past year has reversed the dynamic, curbing refining costs and raising demand for fuels.
“Refining has become a boon in these times from being a burden over the years,” Iain Armstrong, an oil analyst at fund manager Brewin Dolphin Ltd., said July 22 in London. “The companies will look to make the most of this dramatic change while it lasts.”
Shell and BP are scheduled to release second-quarter earnings at the end of the month. Results at their downstream businesses, which include trading as well as refining, are likely to show they also benefited from a market structure called contango, where future prices are higher than those for immediate delivery. That allows their traders to profit by storing cheap oil now to sell for more later.
Oil trimmed losses that tipped prices into a bear market amid a broader commodity rout as trading volatility advanced to the highest in almost two weeks.
Futures climbed as much as 1 percent in New York after closing on Thursday more than 20 percent below this year’s peak in June, meeting the common definition of a bear market. U.S. crude supplies remain almost 100 million barrels above the five- year average after an unexpected increase through July 17, government data showed Wednesday. A measure of price fluctuations rose Thursday to the highest level since July 10.
Oil’s rebound from a six-year low in March has faltered on signs a global surplus will persist. Prices have been swept up in a broad selloff of raw materials, which have fallen to a 13- year low amid concerns that economic growth will stagnate in China, the biggest consumer of energy, metals and grains.
Shell has been given approval by the US Department of Interior to carry out limited offshore drilling in the Arctic.
The decison comes amidst strong opposition from environmental groups who fear a potential oil spill in the region could have a lasting impact.
The oil major will not be able to begin drilling until it has all necessary hardware in place to proceed as well as necessary safety measures.
Imagine parking your $300 million boat for months out in the open sea, with well-paid mechanics hovering around it and the engine running.
The Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea have become a garage for deepwater drillships -- at a cost of about $70,000 a day each. It’s either that or send your precious rig to a scrapyard.
The dilemma underscores how an offshore industry that geared up for an oil boom is grappling with a bust. Rig owners are putting equipment aside at unprecedented numbers as customers including ConocoPhillips pull back from higher-cost deepwater exploration. That’s helped make Transocean Ltd. and Ensco Plc two of the three worst performers in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index over the past year.
Weatherford said it plans to increase the number of headcount reductions within the company to 11,000.
The number is up from the previous estimate of 10,000 and is expected to come from support staff within the US.
The move has been made in response to what Weatherford sees as a weakening market in North America.
Iran’s parliament is set to review the landmark nuclear deal reached with world powers last week.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who headed the Iranian negotiating team during the talks in Vienna, sent the text of the agreement to the house, state media reported.
Under Iran’s constitution, parliament has a right to reject any deal - even one negotiated by the foreign ministry.
However, it is not clear whether politicians will vote on the deal or whether they will simply discuss it and possibly express concerns about it.
Halliburton has signed a joint venture with BlackRock for $500million to help fund drilling of existing shale wells in the US.
The decision is the first such move by a major oilfield services provider at a time when oil producers have been shying away from drilling new wells.
Halliburton has said it expects to see an “uptick” in activity – including refracking – later this year and a meaningful recovery in 2016.
US oil fell below $50 a barrel and gold traded near a five-year low after a selloff that’s seen commodities slide to the lowest in 13 years. The dollar held gains, while most Asian shares climbed.
West Texas Intermediate oil fell 0.3 percent to $49.98 a barrel by 1 p.m. in Tokyo, while gold futures retreated 0.4 percent for a ninth straight decline.
The dollar held near a three-month high against the euro, while the yen touched its weakest in a month. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index edged higher with most stocks climbing, and the Topix index rose 0.3 percent. US stock futures were little changed.
The Baker Hughes weekly rig count has shown further promising results from Canada.
The rig estimate, which has been in force for more than 50 years, is used to show the count overall worldwide, as well as internationally and in the US and Canada.
Eight months into OPEC’s plan to hit rival oil producers, the casualties are mounting. Surprisingly, the most resilient may be the one that triggered the fight: the US.
Projections for combined daily output from Brazil, Canada, Russia, Mexico and Colombia by the end of the decade were cut by 2.8 million barrels since oil slumped last year, data from the countries and the International Energy Agency show.
In contrast, the US Energy Department increased its estimate for crude output in 2020 by more than a million barrels.
Prices fell more than 45 percent in the past year after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries refused to cut output, instead pressuring rival producers to eliminate a global supply glut.
Penn Virginia has signed a deal to sell assets in Texas for $75million.
The company would not disclose the buyer but said the sale would close by the end of next month.
Sabine Oil and Gas has filed for bankruptcy after being hit by the global decline in oil prices.
The company said it is currently in discussions with lenders and debt holders regarding a potential financial restructuring plan.
WPX Energy has bought over RKI Exploration & Production in a $2.35billion deal.
The move by the oil and gas explorer, which is a spin off from Williams Cos, comes just a day after Marathon Petroleum Corp agreed to takeover MarkWest Energy.
WPX has been looking at its options in a bid to increase its profit over the next five years as well as increasing its oil output considerably.
The Baker Hughes rig count showed promise as it was revealed the figures have risen slightly overall from the previous month.
The rig estimate, which has been in force for more than 50 years, is used to show the count overall worldwide, as well as internationally and in the US and Canada.
An agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear program could create a bonanza for US defense contractors who already are benefiting as the Obama administration tries to assuage Israeli and Gulf Arab concerns by cutting deals for more than $6billion in military hardware.
The details of a potential deal being negotiated between Iran and six world powers -- China, France, Germany, Russia, the UK and US -- would determine what steps the U.S. takes to help its allies. A nuclear agreement is likely to prompt Mideast partners to seek improved defense systems from American contractors such as Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp. and Raytheon Co. as well as weapons-makers in France and elsewhere.
“In theory, an Iran deal could lead to a reduction in tensions in the region that would reduce the demand for advanced weaponry,” said William Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy in Washington. “In the short-term, a deal could actually boost the demand for arms.”
Israel plans to leave its biggest offshore natural gas project, Leviathan, in the hands of a U.S.-Israeli consortium while opening the industry to more competition, under a proposal announced on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been adamant in seeking a deal that would allow Leviathan to be developed and sought a parliament vote to let the state circumvent the antitrust authority, which has expressed opposition.
When some ministers said they would not support such a position, Netanyahu faced a coalition crisis and ultimately the vote was postponed due to lack of a majority.
Sinopec, the world's second-biggest oil refiner, is on the hunt for minority investments in U.S. shale oil and gas projects as it seeks to diversify China's supply sources, a senior company official said.
The Chinese state energy firm is keen to take a 10-15 percent stake in projects to export liquefied natural gas (LNG), said Jack Yu, managing director of Sinopec D.C., which handles government relations in the U.S. Previous talks over investing in Freeport LNG's project in Texas fell through, he said.
New deals, if they materialize, would come more than two years after Sinopec made waves with two big U.S. investments, spending more than $3 billion buying various shale stakes from Devon Energy and Chesapeake Energy.
