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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. View the full article
Futures have backtracked since Brent rallied above $71 a barrel and U.S. crude topped $67 earlier this month. China has muted its buying, touching off physical-market weakness in Asia, and a shaky Covid-19 vaccine rollout in parts of the world spells trouble for a complete demand recovery in the short term. View the full article
The backlog of drilled but uncompleted shale wells called DUCs is rapidly shrinking as oil prices rise, signaling that producers are ready to put drilling crews back to work as the industry rebounds from its pandemic-driven downturn. View the full article
Noia CEO Charlene Johnson said the Premier’s Economic Recovery Team report highlights the need for a competitive regulatory regime that allows the Newfoundland and Labrador offshore oil and gas industry to successfully bring projects to market. View the full article
Shell, already the operator of the field, has right of first refusal to any sale by BP. As such, its decision to acquire the stake puts an end to BP’s deal to divest the holding to Tailwind Energy Ltd., an explorer backed by trading house Mercuria Energy Group Ltd. View the full article
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. View the full article
Legislation to block oil drilling in most U.S. waters and Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge edged closer to passage Thursday, as the House Natural Resources Committee rejected more than a dozen changes sought by Republicans. View the full article
Iran’s veteran oil minister, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, will retire when President Hassan Rouhani’s term ends this year, closing a career that started with the birth of the Islamic Republic in 1979 and has often been defined by his country’s turbulent relationship with the U.S. View the full article
The world’s biggest oilfield contractor joined rivals Halliburton and Baker Hughes this week in predicting expansion in overseas work and a more muted recovery in North America through the rest of 2021. Global oil demand should return to pre-pandemic levels by the end of next year, if not sooner, Schlumberger CEO Olivier Le Peuch told analysts on Friday. View the full article
Argentina believes a price ceiling would prevent bull runs in oil markets from triggering a surge in fuel prices, while a price floor would discourage oil companies from pulling out of a marginal asset like Vaca Muerta if markets collapse. View the full article
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. View the full article
With the East African Oil Pipeline project recently getting the go-ahead, Uganda is set to produce its first oil as early as 2025 and production in the next five years is expected to jump to 230,000 barrels per day, from zero in 2021, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company. View the full article
To stop global temperatures from rising above 1.5 degree Celsius from pre-industrial levels, carbon prices must surge to $160 per ton of CO2 by 2030, up from a global average of $22 at the end of last year, Wood Mackenzie said in a report. View the full article
KCA Deutag has secured contracts worth around $110 million for its land drilling business in Pakistan, Russia, Kurdistan, south-eastern Europe and Germany. The new business is made up of a mix of contract wins, allowing the company to mobilize stacked rigs, and contract extensions. View the full article
A Dutch court ordered a Nigerian subsidiary of the oil giant, Shell, last week to compensate for the damage caused by oil spills to local farmers on its watch in the oil-rich Niger Delta region, in 2013.
The unprecedented ruling will have server repercussion for the international oil companies, which work in Nigeria – and beyond its borders.
Shell had been denying the allegation that it was responsible for the oil spills that ruined the livelihood of farmers living in the region; inste
A round-up of data on shale drillers shows they’re sticking to their pledge to cut costs, return money to shareholders and reduce debt. If they stay the course, it would validate the OPEC+ alliance’s high-stakes wager that it can curb output and drive crude prices higher without unleashing an onslaught of supply from U.S. rivals. View the full article
The Middle East is set to lead capacity growth in the global gas processing industry from planned and announced projects between 2021 and 2025 and account for around 37% to the global gas processing capacity growth by 2025, GlobalData projects. View the full article
Phase 2 of project approvals is great boost to jump start carbon capture, but all projects are needed if UK is to meet climate goals, industry body OEUK says. View the full article
The International Energy Agency boosted estimates for this year’s growth in oil consumption by 230,000 barrels a day to 5.7 million a day amid a stronger outlook for the U.S. and China. That puts the world on track to recover about two-thirds of the demand lost last year. View the full article
One of the fastest-growing corners of China’s energy market is facing a potentially devastating blow as Xi Jinping’s government increases scrutiny of high-emission fuels. View the full article
Brent futures lost as much as 3.7% as OPEC and its allies pledge to increase oil production from August until all halted output is revived. A jump in virus cases from Asia to the U.S. drove down equities, with stocks in Europe hitting a seven-week low. View the full article
Under an Interior Department order issued Tuesday, the agency is temporarily halting action on nine leases spanning more than 400,000 acres (161,870 hectares) of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, while it conducts a fresh environmental analysis of the program. View the full article
Following concerns that it is facilitating the sale of meaningless carbon credits to corporate clients, the Nature Conservancy says it’s conducting an internal review of its portfolio of carbon-offset projects. View the full article
The unity of Arab nations with Saudi Arabia at its nucleus appears to be helping the latter in its determination to cut the crude oil output to compensate for the loss of revenues during the past few months.
Both Iraq and Libya confirmed that they will cut down the output for January and February, mimicking what Saudis did: not only did Saudi Arabia cut the oil output by 1 million barrels per day, but also raised the crude oil price for Asia, something that didn’t go down very well with the
The next monthly meeting of the OPEC+ on March 4, is going to be crucial for the oil price in particular and the economies of the world regardless of their strength in general.
At present, the factors which are always in favour of steady oil price are active and in full swing: the inventory draws are significant; China has been importing crude oil at an increased pace and so has India; Covid-19 vaccines bring in new hope for controlling the pandemic.
In this context, OPEC+ can play the
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About this blog
I started this blog to express what I sense about the highs and lows of the oil realm, while cautiously analysing historical data, taking into account the geo-political development at the time of recording them.
I got into this field, having been a passive observer of fluctuations of crude oil prices and their global consequences for years.
Then, when on the day of Great Oil Crash in April, 2020, I made a decision to make my own blog, with the motto, ‘analysing data that really matters’.
Having come from an academic background in mathematics and physics, I analyse data using my own tools, created with JavaScript and Python, taking my decision on board while making decisions.
