Investors fear Colombia pressured Ecopetrol into a $4 billion bailout

Ecopetrol SA, Colombia’s biggest oil company, would hand over about $4 billion to the government in exchange for control of another state-sponsored outfit, the electric utility giant known as ISA. The deal, as investors from Bogota to New York see it, has all the markings of a cash-strapped federal government forcing a state-run company to bail it out. More »

Lackluster results diminish interest in Norway’s latest Arctic oil lease round

The Nordic country’s oil and gas industry has been keen for new acreage to offset an expected decline in production toward the middle of the decade. The Barents is estimated to hold more than 60% of the undiscovered resources off Norway, according to the nation’s petroleum directorate. More »

Oil majors’ green energy pivot hammers Africa’s largest economies

The situation could worsen as Big Oil makes another round of deep spending cuts, leaving consequences both for the oil market, which needs more supply from the OPEC cartel in the coming years, and the economic stability of a region that’s dependent on petroleum revenue. More »

All eyes on OPEC as global oil supply imbalance may force an output revision

With the need for more oil supply evident, traders expect the OPEC+ coalition, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, will agree to increase crude production when it meets on March 4, reversing some of the output cuts made last year. But it’s unclear if the group will act vigorously enough. More »

Oil prices fall as strengthening dollar impacts commodities

Oil fell the most since November with a stronger dollar and concerns surrounding inflation weighing on crude’s best start to the year on record. Yet, the U.S. crude benchmark still managed to post a nearly 18% gain this month as inventories worldwide tighten and pockets of demand return. More »

Native Alaskan landowners demand reconciliation for U.S. government’s ANWR statements

Kaktovik Iñupiat Corporation strongly disputed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announcement that it failed with respect to its permit application to conduct seismic studies in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the company said in a statement. More »

World’s largest oil importer running out of storage capacity

Last year’s crash in oil prices and China’s rapid rebound from the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic set the stage for a flurry of crude purchases. However, stockpiling has leveled off as oil prices rebounded and storage space runs out. More »

Granholm confirmed to lead agency key to Biden’s climate goals

Jennifer Granholm was confirmed as Secretary of Energy, putting the former Michigan Governor at the head of agency that will play a key role in implementing President Joe Biden’s ambitious climate agenda. More »

Exxon takes Canadian oil sands off its books in historic reserves revision

In practical terms, the oil sands revision clipped Exxon’s future growth prospects until oil prices rise, costs slide or technological advances make it profitable to drill those fields. More »

Energean proposes $500MM carbon storage facility in northern Greece

The project would be the first of its kind in the Mediterranean, Energean CEO Matthaios Rigas said at a conference Wednesday. More »

Crude price gains continue on signs of scarce oil supply worldwide

The oil futures curve is continuing to indicate tightness. The market is in a backwardation of almost $6 a barrel for the next 12 months, a structure that indicates scarce supplies. More »

Oxy’s Permian output slump drives millions in midstream losses

Occidental has long held more pipe space than it needs from the Permian, in the hope that its shale business would eventually grow big enough to make use of it. But last year’s oil-price crash, and, more recently, the winter freeze in Texas, caused the company to cut investment and production in an effort to prioritize near-term cash flow for debt reduction. More »

Exxon to sell down North Sea assets as focus narrows on key opportunities

The company will sell most of its non-operated upstream assets in the UK central and northern North Sea to NEO Energy, according to a statement Wednesday. NEO is an oil producer backed by Norwegian private equity firm HitecVision AS. More »

U.S. shale no longer threatens OPEC, says Pioneer CEO

“I’m still a strong believer that demand is going to come back strong, both on airlines and also driving around the world once we get herd immunity,” Pioneer Natural Resources CEO Scott Sheffield said on a conference call Feb. 24. More »

Oil prices reach one-year high as global crude supplies shrink

Key players in the oil market have been talking up the rising prices in the coming months, with some even floating the prospect of $100 crude in the next year or two as the global economy recovers from the pandemic. More »

Keystone XL’s demise shifts crude oil shipments to railways

Without Keystone XL, rail will become a more important way for Canadian oil to reach U.S. Gulf Coast refineries, which need the heavy crude to replace declining supplies from Mexico and Venezuela. And more rail traffic means greater derailment risk. More »

Biden’s Interior nominee on fossil fuels: “the Earth is here to provide for us”

Deb Haaland’s assurances during her nomination hearing appeared to provide little comfort to Senate Republicans, who argued that the Democratic lawmaker’s criticism of fracing, support for pipeline protesters and endorsement of the Green New Deal make her unfit for a job that includes overseeing energy development on federal land. More »

Premier Oil to rejoin UK offshore just in time for oil price surge

With the takeover by Chrysaor expected to complete by the end of March, Premier Oil will start trading under its new name, Harbour Energy Plc, on April 1. Putting behind it a multibillion-dollar debt pile, the firm should be well-positioned to ride the recovery in oil demand and boost investor returns. More »

Saudi Aramco lands multiple bids for $10 billion pipeline stake

The world’s largest oil company is mulling asset disposals as a way of maintaining its $75 billion of annual dividend payments, almost all of which go to the Saudi government. That payout -- the biggest of any listed company in the world -- became harder to sustain after the coronavirus pandemic caused crude prices to plunge last year. More »

Ongoing oil price rally sees futures gain 30% so far this year

Oil has surged this year after Saudi Arabia pledged to unilaterally cut 1 million barrels a day in February and March, with Goldman Sachs Group predicting the crude rally will accelerate as demand outpaces global supply. More »

Biden to mend fences with Trudeau over Keystone XL, other U.S.-Canada trade issues

After four years of bruising trade battles with Donald Trump, the Biden administration already has canceled a permit for TC Energy Corp.’s Keystone XL oil pipeline and threatened new “Buy American” provisions for government procurement contracts. More »

Socar Trading projects oil prices to hit $80 in 2021

Hayal Ahmadzada, Socar’s chief trading officer, said the glut of excess oil stocks that built up in 2020 in response to the pandemic will be fully drawn down by the summer. At the same time, soaring prices for steel used in pipes, wells and fittings as well as the high cost of capital for producers will crimp a meaningful supply response by an already hobbled industry even as demand returns. More »

Crude soars as key banks and traders project further oil price gains

A robust recovery in demand from the Covid-19 pandemic had pushed prices to the highest settlement in more than a year last Wednesday, and Goldman sees the rally accelerating as consumption outpaces supply from OPEC and shale. More »

Texas Alliance: Last week’s rare cold weather stressed the power grid, but gas wasn’t the culprit

Proponents of expanded renewable forms of energy (and opponents of fossil fuel energy, including petroleum) have taken this catastrophe as an opportunity to demonize natural gas, suggesting that falling natural gas supplies were the primary source of the loss of power supply. More »

Summer oil market looks strong after Texas freeze, says crude trader Trafigura

The market is likely underestimating the impact from an unprecedented polar blast that hit the central U.S. last week, while some 40 million barrels of February oil output, largely from the Permian basin, will not be produced due to the recent Texas freeze. More »

Analyst downgrades erase $18B of Petrobras stock value

Bradesco BBI, BTG Pactual, Credit Suisse, JPMorgan, Nau Securities, Santander, Scotiabank and XP Investimentos cut their ratings on the shares after Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Friday decided to fire the oil company’s CEO following a spat over hikes in fuel prices and moved to appoint Joaquim Silva e Luna, a former army general, as a replacement. More »

Activist shareholder pushes Exxon towards net-zero emissions goal

Activist investor Engine No. 1 released a letter on Feb. 22 reiterating its call for Exxon to overhaul its board of directors by adding four new members who have the expertise to steer the company towards climate neutrality. More »

Biden interior pick Haaland’s fossil fuel stance draws GOP opposition

The Senate ultimately is still expected to confirm Haaland, but the slim control Democrats have means Haaland needs every vote she can get. Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat who is chairman of the committee considering her nomination, threw into doubt the fate of another Biden nominee last week. More »

Israel and Egypt discuss natural gas pipeline link

The announcement comes as nations in the eastern Mediterranean ramp up investments in offshore gas fields. Egypt is seeking to become a major hub for exporting LNG to Europe, where demand is growing as governments transition from dirtier fossil fuels such as coal and oil. More »

Brent crude climbs as Goldman Sachs projects further oil price gains

A robust recovery in demand from the Covid-19 pandemic had pushed prices to the highest settlement in more than a year last Wednesday, and Goldman sees the rally accelerating as consumption outpaces supply from OPEC and shale. More »

Iraq walks away from $2B upfront oil deal with China

Prepayment deals are rare in the oil world and this was meant to improve Iraq’s financial situation. While the government is still struggling, its position has improved on soaring oil prices, largely thanks to the rollout of coronavirus vaccines. More »

Argentina’s Vaca Muerta shale goals move further out of reach

YPF is aiming for capital expenditures this year of $2.7 billion, as it tries to halt four years of production declines. After the coronavirus pandemic decimated revenue and the debt swap yielded limited results, getting there will require increasing fuel prices, cutting drilling costs, selling local debt, and maybe divesting assets. More »

Nigeria blocks Shell’s bank accounts over oil pipeline dispute

A Nigerian court restricted Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s access to its bank accounts in the West African country amid a legal dispute with a local oil producer over a pipeline deal six years ago. More »

Angola to allow oil and gas drilling in some nature preservation zones

Angolan lawmakers revoked a ban on exploration for crude and natural gas in protected natural reserves, including the Kassanje Basin and the wildlife-rich Okavango River Basin. More »

Saudi Arabia and Russia at odds before crucial OPEC meeting

Ten months after slashing crude production when Covid-19 crushed global demand, OPEC and its allies are still withholding 7 million barrels a day from the market. It's been a sacrifice, and now the group must chart a path forward that won't erase hard-fought oil price gains. More »

Texas energy commissioner says grid spending placed green politics over reliability

Texas Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian says recent winter storms would not have had such devastating consequences had it not been for decades of poor policy decisions prioritizing unreliable renewable energy sources at the expense of reliable electricity — something Texans now know is essential to everyday life. More »

Higher oil revenue gives Putin room to challenge Russian discontent

Amid growing tensions with the West and fears of new sanctions, Putin has been reluctant to spend heavily in recent years, even during the pandemic. Stagnant living standards have helped fuel public anger at the Kremlin, which has boiled over into the biggest nationwide protests in years and poses a challenge for Putin’s ruling party in parliamentary elections this fall. More »

Oil prices wobble on lower U.S. supplies and weaker crude demand

A fourth weekly decrease in crude inventories and the decline in production highlights the steady downtrend in U.S. supplies before an unprecedented cold blast wiped out nearly 40% of domestic output. Still, demand for crude and fuel is weaker with the cold weather spurring a string of refinery outages and keeping more Americans off the road. More »

Baker Hughes to strengthen its asset performance management portfolio with agreement to acquire ARMS Reliability

The acquisition deepens Baker Hughes’ industrial asset performance management capabilities and will expand the company’s industrial asset management offerings. More »

Shell sells its Alberta shale assets to Calgary-based Crescent Point

Calgary-based Crescent Point, an oil driller with a focus on Saskatchewan, will acquire Shell’s Kaybob Duvernay assets for $550 million in cash and 50 million Crescent Point common shares. More »

Iraq’s climbing oil exports push OPEC compliance further out of reach

Baghdad pledged to pump below its quota in February to make up for past overproduction. Still, the pace of its crude exports in the first half of the month, if maintained through the rest of February, indicates the country may exceed its self-imposed production target of 3.6 million barrels a day and perhaps even its OPEC+ cap of around 3.85 million. More »

Mexico plans tax breaks for Pemex among limited fiscal aid options

Lowering Mexico's tax demands on Pemex, its biggest taxpayer, could help the oil giant reorder its finances as it struggles with a $110.3 billion debt load, sinking production, and some of the highest tax obligations of any oil company in the world. More »

Falling Texas crude output becomes a global oil market crisis

In the past, the weather-related oil disruption would largely have been a U.S. issue. Now it’s unmistakably global. Crude markets in Europe are rallying as traders replace lost U.S. exports. OPEC and its allies must decide how much longer they keep millions of barrels of their supply off the market. More »

Texas rattles gas markets by limiting out-of-state sales during blackouts

Texas Governor Greg Abbott told a media briefing on Feb. 17 that he was banning gas from leaving the state through Feb. 21 to ensure in-state power generators had ample supplies. Abbott said he was forced to act as millions of Texans remain without power for a third day amid frigid temperatures, with no clear timeline for restoring service. More »

Record U.S. winter storm deeply impacts global LNG markets

The Arctic blast that has wreaked havoc on U.S. energy markets is now poised to reverberate internationally as it slows shipments of liquefied natural gas from the Gulf Coast. More »

Largest shale driller bases rig lease costs on well performance

The biggest provider of oil and gas rigs to the U.S. shale patch is pushing a new pricing model as speedier drilling cuts into contractors’ revenue. More »

Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum and Schlumberger launch Egypt Upstream Gateway

“Egypt is in the process of launching the Egypt Upstream Gateway, a digital subsurface platform that will act as an up-to-date repository of the country’s subsurface data,” said H.E. Eng. Tarek El-Molla, minister of petroleum and mineral resources, Egypt. More »

U.S. will import 62% more crude by 2022 due to domestic production declines, says EIA

The U.S. Energy Information Administration expects that the United States will import more crude oil to fill the widening gap between refinery inputs of crude oil and domestic crude oil production in 2021 and 2022. More »

Qatar outlines plan to lead global LNG exports for the next 20 years

Qatar will spend billions of dollars expanding its LNG capacity more than 50% to 126 million tons a year. The Persian Gulf state is already the world’s main supplier of the super-chilled fuel, but new projects elsewhere -- especially in Australia and the U.S. -- have eroded its dominance. More »

Saudis warn against OPEC complacency before March meeting

“I must warn once again against complacency,” Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said on Wednesday at an online conference held by the International Energy Forum in Riyadh. “The uncertainty is very high and we have to be extremely cautious. The scars from the events last year should teach us caution.” More »

Equinor taps Aker Solutions to cut CO2 emissions on Troll B and C platforms

“Reduction of climate footprint is high on the agenda for our customers in the oil and gas industry. Electrification of production platforms is one of the ways to reduce emissions from such operations,” said Kjetel Digre, chief executive officer of Aker Solutions. More »

Biden and his climate team disparage workers as part of their fossil fuel rhetoric

Vice President Kamala Harris drew derision on social media after she told a West Virginia television station that people could be put to work reclaiming abandoned “land mines.” A day earlier, climate envoy John Kerry said during a White House briefing that displaced laborers face “better choices” making solar panels and installing wind turbines. More »

Lukoil added nearly 500 MMboe proved reserves in 2020

As a result of geological exploration and production drilling conducted in 2020, Lukoil added 464 million barrels of oil equivalent to its proved reserves. The largest contribution was made by the assets in West Siberia, Ural region, Timan-Pechora and Russian sector of the Caspian Sea. More »

Shale driller bases rig lease costs on well performance

The biggest provider of oil and gas rigs to the U.S. shale patch is pushing a new pricing model as speedier drilling cuts into contractors’ revenue. More »

Iran calls U.S. oil tanker seizure an ‘act of piracy’

Iran said an attempt by the U.S. government to seize 2 million barrels of oil aboard a Greek-owned tanker was “an act of piracy,” as tensions between Washington and the Islamic Republic show little sign of easing under Joe Biden’s presidency. More »

Biden and his climate team add personal insults to fossil fuel rhetoric

Vice President Kamala Harris drew derision on social media after she told a West Virginia television station that people could be put to work reclaiming abandoned “land mines.” A day earlier, climate envoy John Kerry said during a White House briefing that displaced laborers face “better choices” making solar panels and installing wind turbines. More »

U.S. oil output plunges as Arctic air freezes Permian shale fields

U.S. oil production has plunged by more than 2 million barrels a day as the coldest weather in 30 years brings havoc to key producing states that rarely have to deal with frigid Arctic blasts. More »

Oil prices rally as record winter storms hit Texas shale supplies

The Arctic blast gripping the central U.S. may threaten crude exports from one of the world’s top producers, amid rapidly-normalizing global stockpiles that point to the success OPEC has had in draining a surplus left in the wake of the pandemic. More »

U.S. oil demand accelerates as refiners project more summer driving

American refiners are processing the most crude since the economy ground to a halt in March in anticipation of a vaccine-driven boost in gasoline demand this summer. The uptick means that the refiners are competing for domestic barrels that for months were sent to more robust markets in Asia. More »

Record cold brings a windfall for small U.S. natural gas producers

After years of depressed prices and weak margins, U.S. natural gas producers -- at least those with wells and equipment that aren’t frozen -- are cashing in on an unusually extreme blast of cold. The freeze is giving a rare boost to a market that’s never recovered from a crash more than a decade ago, flooded by cheap supplies from shale fields. More »

Texas prioritizes natural gas to electricity plants amid record winter storms

The Texas Railroad Commission is taking action to prioritize natural gas supplies to support electricity generation, as the state faces multiple days of record cold temperatures. More »

Canada’s Trudeau rejects a NAFTA challenge to Keystone XL shutdown

Canadian Trade Minister Mary Ng said she is focusing her efforts with the new Biden administration on mutual U.S.-Canada interests despite early policy hiccups that risk further fracturing ties between the two nations, whose commercial relationship is worth $725 billion a year. More »

Offshore Technology Conference names new executive director

Leigh Ann Runyan, CMP, will take over as Executive Director of the Offshore Technology Conference in mid-April. She replaces Stephen Graham, who is retiring. Runyan has extensive experience managing OTC and other large events. More »

Oil prices snap an eight-day run as IEA cuts demand outlook

Oil prices in New York slid 0.8% on Thursday, the biggest decline in two weeks, after rising for eight straight sessions. The IEA said the re-balancing of the global oil markets remains “fragile” and slashed its forecasts for world oil consumption in 2021 as the pandemic continues to limit travel and economic activity. More »

OPEC+ will keep oil output steady next month, per Iraq’s oil minister

OPEC meets on March 4 and members will probably agree to keep output steady in April, Iraq’s Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar said. The biggest change will come from Saudi Arabia, which will likely end unilateral daily cuts of 1 million barrels after March, he said. More »

IEA cuts global oil consumption estimates for 2021 as virus persists

The IEA cut forecasts for world oil consumption in 2021 by 200,000 barrels a day as the pandemic continues to limit travel and economic activity. It boosted projections for supplies outside the OPEC cartel by 400,000 barrels a day as a price recovery spurs investment. More »

Shell to freeze staff salaries, warns of layoffs in green energy pivot

Shell is starting one of the biggest reorganizations in its history as it pivots from a century-long structure that prioritized oil and gas production. There will be as many as 9,000 job losses over the next two years, with cuts already announced in The Netherlands, the UK and Malaysia. A second round of voluntary redundancies is also underway, Shell CEO Ben Van Beurden said last week. More »

Energean takes on $170M offshore Israel gas exploration plan

Energean sees potential to find about 110 billion cubic meters of gas that it could sell over the next 10-20 years, doubling the company's current reserves in Israel. More »

Chesapeake exits bankruptcy as CEO Lawler sees ‘new era’ for shale

Chesapeake Energy, the once-iconic energy explorer that helped ignite the American shale-gas boom, is emerging from bankruptcy protection a shadow of its former self. And in a way, that’s just fine with its boss. More »

Equinor exits Bakken shale with $900MM sale to Grayson Mill Energy

Equinor has agreed to divest its interests in the Bakken field in the US states of North Dakota and Montana to Grayson Mill Energy, backed by EnCap Investments, for a total consideration of around USD $900 million. More »

Regulators crack down on Texas shale gas flaring

Texas’s energy regulator is taking an uncharacteristically critical approach toward burning off excess natural gas, a sign that growing pressure from environmentalists and investors to curb the controversial practice is paying off. More »

Equinor sells Bakken shale assets to Grayson Mill Energy

Equinor has agreed to divest its interests in the Bakken field in the US states of North Dakota and Montana to Grayson Mill Energy, backed by EnCap Investments, for a total consideration of around USD $900 million. More »

Abu Dhabi grants Japan’s Cosmo offshore oil exploration rights

Cosmo will invest as much as $145 million in the exploration phase at Offshore Block 4, government-owned ADNOC said Wednesday in a statement. Abu Dhabi holds most of the oil in the United Arab Emirates, the third-largest producer in OPEC. More »

LLOG strikes deal with Eni and Marubeni for deepwater Mississippi Canyon tieback

The agreement provides LLOG access to Eni and Marubeni Oil and Gas’ existing subsea infrastructure connected to the Williams-owned Devils Tower Spar in Mississippi Canyon 773 to optimize its development of the Taggart discovery. More »

Oil price’s record climb continues on falling global crude inventories

While prices continue to surge, some of the biggest moves in the past day have come at the front of the futures curve. Brent’s nearest timespread has surged -- a key sign of market tightness -- while key swaps tied to the physical North Sea market have also increased amid frenzied trading of derivatives late Tuesday. More »

Total beats earnings estimates, boosts renewables investment

Total SE bucked the trend of a disappointing fourth quarter for Big Oil, reporting earnings that exceeded expectations and pledging more cash for cleaner energy. More »

EIA raises U.S. crude output forecast for 2022

Supply from new oil wells will exceed declining flows from wells already in service, raising overall crude production from the second half of this year, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its Short-Term Energy Outlook. More »

Oil markets accelerate as investors search for yield

West Texas Intermediate oil is effectively yielding about 8% on an annualized basis for investors who keep rolling their positions from one month into the next. It compares with 1.15% for a 10-year U.S. Treasury, and U.S. junk bonds below 4% for the first time ever. More »

Net zero regulation: Russia will replace all the U.S. oil Biden wants to ban

Investors are betting that Russian oil giants such as Lukoil, Rosneft and Tatneft will rally as they mop up market share from rivals in the U.S. and and other countries seeking to switch to clean energy. More »

Oil stocks rallying in 2021, despite Biden’s fossil fuel threats

Companies including Exxon Mobil, Diamondback Energy and Marathon Oil have posted double-digit gains this year as a rebound in oil prices and the prospect of an economic recovery have outweighed risks to the industry from the Biden administration. More »

Turkish Petroleum mulls partnerships for multi-billion Black Sea gas project

Turkey’s state-owned oil and gas company is considering partnerships and plans to raise funding this year to carry out work on the biggest natural gas discovery in the Black Sea, according to people with knowledge of the matter. More »

Oil majors outbid green energy firms to build offshore UK windfarms

The UK's Crown Estate auctioned seabed rights that will allow about 8 gigawatts of new wind farms, enough to power more than 7 million homes. With oil majors taking a majority of the sites, it’s a sign that green energy companies are facing a new era of competition for some of the world’s biggest renewable energy projects. More »

Mismanagement may end Algeria’s run as an oil exporter

The North African nation’s struggling to keep up shipments of oil and gas -- the lifeblood of the economy -- as years of mismanagement and a lack of investment take their toll. The decrease is so severe that Algeria might cease to be an crude exporter within a decade, according to Cherif Belmihoub, a minister in charge of economic projections. More »

China helps Brent crude oil prices pass $60 milestone

Global stockpiles in onshore tanks and floating storage are estimated by the International Energy Agency to have shrunk by about 300 million barrels since OPEC and its allies made deep production cuts in May. Reduced supply and the vaccine-driven demand boost have entrenched Brent’s futures price curve in a bullish backwardation structure, which encourages the draining of more oil from tanks. More »

After a catastrophic year, oil is posting a remarkable recovery

2020's economic crisis triggered by the coronavirus was the worst the petroleum industry has ever seen. Fuel demand crashed by a fifth, prices slumped below zero, and more than a billion surplus barrels poured into storage tanks worldwide. In spite of all this, oil is posting a remarkable 2021 recovery. More »

World’s largest crude trader sees ‘post-vaccine euphoria’ in oil prices

Crude prices have soared since early November on optimism Covid-19 vaccines will restore energy demand and deep supply cuts by OPEC and Russia. Yet many major economies remain in strict lockdowns and some are struggling to source enough vaccine doses. More »

UK oil and gas group names Equinor SVP as board co-chair

The leading representative body for the UK oil and gas industry has today announced the appointment of a new co-chair to its board, as the sector focuses on the industry’s recovery whilst meeting net-zero targets for 2021. More »

Equinor wins decade-long court fight over Nigeria oil profits

Equinor ASA said the Nigerian Supreme Court overturned a ruling that had threatened to divert 1.5% of the company’s profits from one of the country’s largest oil fields to a former consultant. More »

Chevron makes bid for Noble Midstream buyout

California-based oil and gas giant Chevron is offering to pay to acquire Noble Midstream with its own shares, at a value of $12.47 per common unit. More »

Total to meet all its U.S. electricity needs with new Texas solar projects

“I am very pleased that Total is further contributing to the development of solar power in the U.S. We look forward to taking advantage of the many growth opportunities in the U.S. market to address the challenges of the energy transition,” said Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO of Total. More »

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund scrutinizes its oil holdings

Norway’s $1.3 trillion wealth fund is set to take a critical look at the stakes it holds in national oil companies, as its ethics council expands scrutiny of corruption in its latest set of guidelines. More »

Canada may seek U.S. payback via NAFTA after Biden cancels Keystone XL

To “retroactively remove regulatory approval on the basis of which an investment was made is, in my view, a slam dunk case of a claim for damages through NAFTA under the investor protection provisions,” Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said on Tuesday. More »

THREE60 Energy awarded first international duty holder contract for Galoc Field FPSO

Under the terms of the life of field contract, THREE60 Energy will carry out operations and maintenance duties on behalf of the Galoc Joint Venture, with the objective of improving performance and extending the field’s economic life. More »

Saudis raise prices of U.S. oil shipments

State oil producer Saudi Aramco raised prices for all crude oil grades sold to customers in the U.S. and Europe. More »

Oil prices approach $60 as crude stockpiles shrink

Crude inventories at a key storage hub in the U.S. are now below their five-year average, and nationwide inventories continue to slump, an early indication that Saudi Arabia and allied producers are succeeding in their efforts to eliminate a glut. More »

Tullow taps Maersk Venturer for long-term Ghana campaign

Maersk Drilling has received a conditional letter of award from Tullow Ghana Ltd. for the provision of the ultra-deepwater drillship Maersk Venturer and additional services for a development drilling campaign at the TEN and Jubilee fields offshore Ghana. More »

Argentina’s state-run shale driller faces debt deadline

Creditors of Argentina’s state-run oil company, YPF SA, are sending mixed signals as one group of bondholders rejected the company’s latest debt restructuring plan while another voiced support. More »

OPEC+ members focus on reducing pandemic’s crude oil surplus

OPEC and its allies have taken a two-month pause while restoring some of the millions of barrels of crude output they halted when the coronavirus emerged to crush fuel demand last spring. More »

Global oil supply imbalance shrinks China’s crude reserves

Inventories capped a seventh weekly decline last week, dropping to 990 million barrels, according to market intelligence firm Kayrros. More »

U.S. signals Biden’s tough stance on Iran with new oil seizure attempt

The Department of Justice filed a case in a U.S. district court, seeking to seize the cargo on the Greek-owned Achilleas tanker. The U.S. alleges that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the IRGC-Qods Force covertly shipped the oil abroad. More »

Oil price rally continues as WTI crude hits one-year high

Tighter crude supplies are bringing traders flocking back to the oil market. Holdings of WTI futures contracts are now at their highest level since April, having jumped by the equivalent of more than 235 million barrels so far this year. More »

U.S. oil exports to Asia hit new record in January

Asian-refiner demand has provided major support to U.S. oil as the market rebounds from its worst-ever crash last year. Asia has recovered faster from the pandemic than the rest of the world, helping revive demand for crude and boost U.S. benchmark prices 13% so far this year. More »

Saudis’ OPEC+ oil strategy success buys the group some time

Last month’s pledge by Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman to slash production by a further 1 million barrels a day has buttressed global markets against the latest onslaught from the pandemic. More »

Shell’s North Sea crude buys indicate sharply tightening supply

Shell, the world’s largest physical oil trader, has made bold moves in the North Sea in the past, pointing out that it needs the barrels for its own giant global refining system and to satisfy demand from customers in Asia. More »

Oil price surges on signs of a tight global crude market

“There’s a sense that normalcy will occur and it’s looking more certain,” boosting the outlook for oil demand, said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy and Economic Research. Meanwhile, “the Saudi production cuts start today, and people are focused on falling inventories and how the market is tightening.” More »

BP posts weak Q4 results as coronavirus recovery drags on

The Western world’s largest energy producers were supposed to be sailing into the fourth-quarter earnings season with a tailwind from stronger commodity prices, but BP’s miss and Chevron’s surprise loss show the enduring impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. More »

Shell, C3 AI, Baker Hughes, and Microsoft launch the Open AI Energy Initiative, an ecosystem of AI solutions to help transform the energy industry

The initiative provides a framework for energy operators, service providers, equipment providers, and independent software vendors for energy services to offer interoperable solutions, including AI and physics-based models, monitoring, diagnostics, prescriptive actions, and services, powered by the BHC3™ AI Suite and Microsoft Azure. More »

African members’ production troubles offset OPEC’s planned increase

OPEC boosted crude production as planned last month, but the increase was tempered by disruptions at long-troubled member nations. More »

C-Innovation signs one-year contract extension with BP for Riserless Light Well Intervention in Gulf of Mexico

C-Innovation, LLC announced a one-year contract extension with BP for Riserless Light Well Intervention in the Gulf of Mexico. The Island Venture and team are currently mobilized and in the field working on one of BP’s assets. More »

Oil surges on signs of a tight global crude market

“There’s a sense that normalcy will occur and it’s looking more certain,” boosting the outlook for oil demand, said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy and Economic Research. Meanwhile, “the Saudi production cuts start today, and people are focused on falling inventories and how the market is tightening.” More »

Oxy teams with Macquarie to deliver world’s first carbon-neutral oil from Permian basin to India

The transaction between Oxy and India's Reliance Industries is the energy industry’s first major petroleum shipment for which greenhouse gas emissions associated with the entire crude lifecycle, well head through combustion of end products, have been offset. More »

PESA and AESC combine to form Energy Workforce and Technology Council

The Council will represent more than 600 energy technology and services companies in the global energy supply chain providing solutions to enable a low-carbon future, safely, profitably, and sustainably. More »

Iran says more oil exports are key to restoring U.S. nuclear deal

Iran sent a clear signal to the Biden administration that it expects relief from sanctions, and the full restoration of the United Nations resolution that underpins the deal, before it starts scaling back its nuclear activities. More »

BP sells Oman gas stake in push to divest $25B of fossil fuel assets

BP will sell a stake in an Omani gas block to Thailand’s national energy firm for $2.6 billion, part of a push to divest billions of dollars of assets and focus more on renewable energy. More »