With oil dropping below $30 a barrel, producers in western Europe’s biggest crude exporting nation are now considerably worse off than they were in the darkest hours of 2008.
Norway’s oil “industry is in a crisis now, we can’t deny that,” Bente Nyland, director general of the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, told Bloomberg.
Nyland says there’s a tendency for oil companies to prioritize short-term earnings rather than “long-term value creation,” as prices continue to fall.
The slump in oil prices that’s brought upheaval and cost cutting to the traditional energy industry spared renewables such as solar and wind, which raked in a record $329.3 billion of investment last year.
General Electric Co. plans to eliminate about 6,500 jobs in Europe, citing waning demand for gas and steam turbines in the region as it integrates Alstom SA’s energy units into its operations.
OPEC will soon make efforts to convene before the next scheduled meeting in June as the slump in oil prices is hurting producers, including the world’s biggest exporter, Saudi Arabia, said Emmanuel Kachikwu, Nigeria’s minister of state for petroleum resources.
Oil extended declines from the lowest close in more than 12 years before U.S. government data forecast to show crude supplies expanded, exacerbating a global glut.
Energy’s drag on Canadian stocks showed no signs of abating as the nation’s benchmark equity gauge slumped a ninth straight day, the longest losing streak since 2002.
Canadian equities have lost 7.2 percent during this period with the Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index failing to post a positive trading day in 2016. Crude futures in New York approached a 12-year low, falling as much as 2.8 percent in New York to $32.24 a barrel.
Noble Group Ltd. Chairman Richard Elman stepped up his defense of the commodity trader that he founded by boosting his stake after the stock sank to the lowest since 2008, the company’s credit rating was cut to junk and analysts scaled back price targets.
Shareholders of Drillsearch Energy Ltd. look set to approve a A$384million ($266million) takeover of the Cooper Basin oil and gas producer in Australia by Beach Energy Ltd. later this month, the Australian Financial Review reported.
Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump pledged to "tax Wall Street" as he sought to use a severe stock market selloff to plant new seeds of fear among voters during a campaign rally Saturday in Ottumwa, Iowa.
Investors hoping a Saudi Arabian Oil Co. IPO will provide a chance to buy a stake in the world’s largest crude producer may have to wait. The company says one option is to sell shares in the company’s refining assets rather than the parent company.
Saudi Arabian Oil Co., the world’s biggest crude oil producer, confirmed it is considering a potential initial public offering.
The company, known as Aramco, is studying whether to list “an appropriate percentage” of shares of the parent or a bundle of “downstream” units, according to an e-mailed statement Friday. Once the review of these various options is complete, the findings will be presented to the company’s board of directors, which will make recommendations to Aramco’s Supreme Council.
Norway’s central bank can probably sit out the global currency war that is now at its doorstep.
Even a potential intervention in neighboring Sweden is unlikely to boost the Norwegian krone as a deepening rout in Brent crude drags down the currency of western Europe’s biggest crude producer.
“At the end of the day, the Norwegian krone is oil- fixated,” said Daragh Maher, head of currency strategy for HSBC in New York. “Really, the issue is whether the oil price can find a bottom.”
Saudi Arabia, one of the most tradition- bound societies on the planet, where family structure and tribal patriarchy differ little from a century ago, is suddenly in a hurry. It has done more in the past week than in most years.
Over eight days, it has executed dozens of militants, severed ties with Iran and announced numerous steps for a radical rollback of the state that may include privatizing oil giant Saudi Aramco, among the world’s largest companies.
Oil was swept along by volatility in Chinese markets, rallying from a 12-year low as the country sought to quell losses in its equities and stabilize its currency.
Futures rose as much as 3.2 percent in New York after China suspended a controversial equity circuit breaker system and its central bank set the yuan’s reference rate little changed after an eight-day stretch of weaker fixings. Crude slid Thursday to the lowest since December 2003 as market turbulence reverberated across the globe amid concern over economic growth in the world’s biggest energy consumer.
California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency to protect residents from natural gas that has been leaking from Sempra Energy’s underground storage site near Los Angeles for more than two months.
Brent crude dropped below $35 a barrel to an 11-year low before weekly U.S. government data forecast to show fuel supplies rose in the world’s biggest consuming nation.
Halliburton Co. passed on a chance to offer early concessions to European Union regulators, meaning it will likely face a protracted antitrust review of its plan to buy oil services rival Baker Hughes Inc.for $26 billion.
