The energy minister of the UAE (United Arab Emrirates) has been appointed managing director of the IPIC (International Petroleum Investment Company). The move follows a reshuffle of the board. Suhail Mohammed al-Mazrouei will take up the position, replacing Khadem al-Qubaisi.
OMV said its output in the first quarter of the year fell to 303,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. The Austrian oil and gas company said the number dropped from 318,000 in the previous quarter. The fall was caused predominantly by a one-month interruption after "technical issues" at its Gudrun field in Norway.
A combination of cost-cutting measures by oil and gas firms and Opec’s decision not to curb output is laying the foundations for the next crude price surge, former BP chief executive Tony Hayward said yesterday. A slump in crude prices from summer highs of more than $100 per barrel to less than $50 at the turn of the year has made life miserable for energy companies, many of which have had to mothball projects and offload staff. The price drop was caused by the build-up of a massive supply glut, which was brought about by a stand-off between Opec and US shale producers. Opec was bent on pumping out so much oil that the price would be driven down to the point that US shale producers would no longer be able to make a profit, forcing them to shut down. Mr Hayward said the tactic is paying off and that Opec, whose leading nations can produce oil cheaply, will ultimately regain market share.
Remote-operated vehicle firm Rovop unveiled its £4.2million headquarters in Aberdeen yesterday and announced that it had received £10million of new investment. The cash injection from the Business Growth Fund (BGF) – a company with £2.5billion of capital and the backing by five UK high-street banks – will be used to help Rovop swell its fleet of ROVs to 50 from 15 over the next three years. Rovop chief executive Steven Gray said the funding boost had come at a “particularly opportune time”, as the company looks to capitalise on the oil price downturn by providing operators with more cost-effective subsea services.
Det Norkse Oljeselskap has completed drilling on two appraisal wells on the Ivar Aasen field. The wells drilled were 16/1-21 A and 16/1-21 S and both yielded valuable information as regards the final location of production and injection wells.
French oil services company Technip has seen its subsea division outperforming this year as it revealed its first quarter results. The company said it was expecting an adjusted operating profit in its offshore and onshore division, which it had previously estimated would be between €250million and €290million this year. The company's offshore and onshore division builds oil rigs, refineries and liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants and accounts for more than half of its revenue.
ExxonMobil has agreed to pay $5.07million after it was alleged the company violated the federal Clean Water Act and state environmental laws. The payment relates to 2013 oil spill in Arkansas. The incident two years happened after the rupture of Exxon's Pegasus pipeline, which caused an estimated 3,190 barrels of oil to flow into a residential neighbourhood and nearby waterways, including Lake Conway which flows into the Arkansas River.
Half of the 41 fracking companies operating in the US will be dead or sold by year-end because of slashed spending by oil companies, an executive with Weatherford International Plc said. There could be about 20 companies left that provide hydraulic fracturing services, Rob Fulks, pressure pumping marketing director at Weatherford, said in an interview Wednesday at the IHS CERAWeek conference in Houston. Demand for fracking, a production method that along with horizontal drilling spurred a boom in US oil and natural gas output, has declined as customers leave wells uncompleted because of low prices.
Companies threatened by plunging oil prices may find redemption in overly pessimistic analyst estimates made during last year’s slump in crude. So says Andrew Cosgrove, a senior energy analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. It played out today in FMC Technologies Inc., which jumped the most in five years after first-quarter earnings beat Wall Street predictions thanks to subsea technologies revenue. Its shares rose 7.5 percent to $40.56, the most in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
Brazil’s national oil company said a graft scandal cost it 6.2 billion reais ($2.1 billion) after a five-month internal debate that shut off access to bond markets, cost the chief executive her job and destabilized the country’s politics. By disclosing the charge in its first audited results since August, Petrobras opens the way for renewed access to financial markets. Shares of the world’s most-indebted oil company rose in New York even after it reported a net loss of 21.6 billion reais for 2014. “However the market interprets the number, actually arriving at a number creates more credibility,” Rafael Cortez, a political analyst at Tendencias Consultoria, said by phone from Sao Paulo.
Rose Petroleum has appointed Ty Watson as its head of oil and gas operations. The move comes as John Blair made the decision to step down from the position, effective immediately.
Aberdeen firm EnerMech is to turn its expertise to good use in a £36billion development which will deliver an estimated 8% of the world’s total liquefied natural gas (LNG) production. The mechanical engineering group said yesterday it had won “multimillion-dollar” contracts for the air drying and nitrogen purging of six gas storage tanks at the new Curtis Island LNG facilities in Queensland, Australia. US-based construction and civil engineering giant Bechtel has asked EnerMech to provide pre-engineering, supervision, manpower and equipment for work on the tanks, which together hold the equivalent of 56 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Politicians traded blows over the future of the North Sea oil and gas industry, changes to the tax regime for the sector and the potential for onshore fracking at an energy hustings in Aberdeen yesterday. Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said he wants to see a continued “downward trajectory” in terms of the tax rate for the North Sea if his party is returned to Westminster. But the Liberal Democrat, speaking at the event organised by industry body Oil and Gas UK, came under fire from SNP candidate for Gordon Alex Salmond for his role in the coalition’s infamous tax raid in 2011.
Total SA said it may take advantage of the slump in crude to make acquisitions that build on the strengths of Europe’s third-biggest oil company in deepwater offshore fields and liquefied natural gas. “When we are in a low price environment, it’s natural and not surprising that big oil companies are opportunistic,” Yves-Louis Darricarrere, president of upstream at Total, said at the CIS O&G conference in Paris on Wednesday. “We are second to none on deep offshore and LNG and we have a clear strategy to keep and reinforce these strong points.” Total’s appetite for acquiring reserves was illustrated this year by its renewal of an oil concession in Abu Dhabi, said Darricarrere, who declined to say whether the French oil company is considering any deals. Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s $70 billion move for BG Group Plc this month could trigger a wave of industry transactions after crude prices fell by half, analysts including Jean-Luc Romain of CM-CIC Securities have said.
Atlas Knowledge and its strategic partner Amplo Development Services have launched a new initiative to bring internationally certified construction, commercial and oil and gas training to the South African and Namibian energy industries. The move is in response to the increasing demand in the region for accessible and affordable training to workforce in the developing energy region. The first two authorised training centres of Amplo's have been certified to deliver in excess of 1,000 e-learning courses as well as OPITO certified invigilated training.
Oil and gas skills body OPITO is set to become a strategic skills adviser in Cyprus with the opening of new offices in the region. Following discussions with senior Cypriot officials, OPITO has invested in a new office in the country. The Eastern Mediterranean is currently estimated to hold 122 trillion cubic feet of gas in the area. Group chief executive David Doig said: “The recent discovery of natural gas resources offshore Cyprus is a major opportunity to create jobs and opportunities for the island and its people.
Swedish producer Lundin Petroleum has said it will be hit with a $204million non-cash foreign exchange loss in its first quarter results. The company has also booked a $45million pre-tax exploration cost. Lundin said whilst neither booking would have an impact on its operating cost or its core earnings, they would have an affect on the company's profitability.
NOV has appointed an interim chief financial officer after Jeremy Thigpen was snapped up to take the helm of Transocean as chief executive. It follows his move after 18 years with the company. The firm's vice president, Scott Duff, has been named as interim financial officer while a replacement is sought.
Antitrust regulators in the European Union have charged Gazprom with abusing its position in Eastern European countries. Earlier this week it was revealed charges could be brought against the Russian energy giant. Now, after more than two years of investigation, the European Commission said the company had hindered competition across countries including Poland and Hunga
ConocoPhillips, the third-largest US oil producer, is exploring the sale of some its North Sea assets in Norway as it seeks to divest overseas operations, two people with knowledge of the matter said. The Houston-based oil and natural gas producer may sell Norwegian assets that are operated by others including stakes in the Aasta Hansteen, Alvheim and Grane fields, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. Conoco, which is running the disposal without advisers, has contacted potential buyers, they said. If sold together, all three stakes may fetch as much as $1 billion, one of the people said. US producers are increasingly offloading overseas assets to focus on domestic opportunities amid a sharp drop in oil prices.
The Dutch Economy Minister has insisted production at the Groningen field will not exceed more than 36.4billion cubic metres this year. Henk Kamp wrote to the country's parliament to confirm caps previously agreed on Europe's largest oil field would remain in place. In February the minister cut first half 2015 production to 16.5 bcm, sending gas prices surging in Northwest Europe. The overall annual target for the year is still to be confirmed in July.
Transocean has appointed NOV's chief financial officer as its next chief executive. The company said Jeremy Thigpen would take up the role, replacing Ian Strachan who had been filling the position in an interim capacity. Mr Strachan, will also retire as the chairman of the board of directors at the end of his term at the 2015 annual general meeting.
Contract drillers Nabors Industries said it has reduced it global workforce by 18% since last year. The company had made the move following the oil price decline and it affect on drilling activity.
OPEC’s refusal to curb output in response to the collapse in crude prices is an attempt to find the most economic price for oil, not an attack on US shale drillers, said Exxon Mobil Corp. Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is engaged in “a classic price-discovery exercise” after the revolution in shale-oil production turned global crude markets topsy turvy, Tillerson said during the IHS CERAWeek conference in Houston on Tuesday. The 10-month, 48-percent cascade in US oil prices has crushed stock prices, eroded drilling budgets and cost tens of thousands of workers their jobs.
Aberdeen energy service firm XPD8 Solutions has described a new £375,000 contract in west Africa as a "pat on the back" by one of its clients. The six-month deal will see asset integrity management specialist XPD8, which has its headquarters in North Silver Street, move Tullow Oil's existing computer-based maintenance management system to a new software package, Maximo. Once installed, the Maximo system will support planning, scheduling, performance monitoring and reporting of asset integrity key performance indicators for the Jubilee floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel offshore of Ghana. XPD8 managing director Mark Cavanagh said: “It is a pat on the back to our team that we have been chosen to work again with Tullow Oil, which is an existing client for us, on what is another significant contract.