TGS said its operating revenues were down by more than 50% in the final quarter of last year compared with the same time in 2014. The seismic company said it also expects its full year revenues to be down by one third, with weak market conditions expected to continue into 2016.
The troubled start to the new year continued as global markets tumbled amid oil prices slumping to new 11-year lows. London’s FTSE 100 Index fell 63.9, points to 6073.4, with indices across Europe also sharply lower as Brent crude dropped below 35 US dollars a barrel.
Lower energy costs kept a lid on inflation across the 19-country eurozone economy in December, official figures have shown.
Shanghai’s stock index plunged nearly 7% on Monday, sparking a halt in trading of Chinese shares, after weak manufacturing data and Middle East tensions weighed on Asian markets.
Atlantic Petroleum said the company will not be paying a debt instalment to Eik Bank in the Faroe Islands this month. The company said the the amount of DKK19.55mm on its DKK58.5MM debt will not be met.
Jericho Oil said it was proceeding with a private placement of more than 17million units at a price of $0.40 per share in a bid to raise $6.929million.
Triyards Holdings Limited has secured contracts to build two oil barges worth $21million for CPC Corporation. The new contracts are for the construction of a pair of oil barges intended for coastal service and the supply of bunker fuel to vessels in Taiwan’s harbour and coastal areas.
Asia’s top commodity trader exits 2015 in very different shape to how it began the year. Noble Group Ltd. has lost almost two-thirds of its value, with its stock trading near the lowest since 2008, after a year of attacks on its finances by critics including the anonymous Iceberg Research and short-seller Muddy Waters LLC. The latest blow, amid a rout in raw materials, is the cut in its credit rating to junk by Moody’s Investors Service on concerns over its liquidity.
Former Russian Finance Minister and investor favorite Alexei Kudrin is in talks with Vladimir Putin and other top officials about returning to a senior post to help deal with worsening economic troubles, according to three people familiar with the discussions. Kudrin has met privately with the Russian president and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as recently as last week to discuss the plans, though no formal offer has yet been made, the people said. The talks are the most advanced since Kudrin, widely respected by investors for his fiscal discipline and commitment to market reforms, quit as finance minister in 2011, the people said. A decision could come early next year, they said.
Tethys Petroleum has warned it does not have sufficient funding to meet its requirements beyond the next few months.
The wider FTSE 100 Index was 20.9 points higher at 6275.5 in thin trading volumes following the Christmas break. Flood-hit insurers were bucking the market gains, with warnings for more disruption in Cumbria and southern and central Scotland as Storm Frank threatens to bring more misery.
Russia’s biggest banker has warned oil prices could fall further.
Gulf Island Fabrication has struck a deal with Leevac Shipyards to acquire all of its assets for $20million.
Japanese stocks fell, reversing gains as a strengthening yen weighed on the profit outlook for exporters. Energy shares climbed as oil advanced for a fourth day. The Topix index lost 0.7 percent to 1,523.62 at the close in Tokyo after rising as much as 0.9 percent as the yen added 0.3 percent to 120.57 per dollar. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average dropped 0.5 percent to 18,789.69.
The IMF (International Monetary Fund) has said a resurgence in oil exports next year could lower oil prices down by between $5 and $15 a barrel. Iran is expected to push an additional half million barrels into international markets next year.
Resolute Energy has closed the sale of its Gardendale assets in the Midland Basin of West Texas for a price of $177.5million. The proceeds of the sale will be used to repay $95million under the company’s revolving credit facility.
US stocks rose for a third day to further pare their December decline, with energy shares leading amid a rally in crude oil. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.7 percent to 2,053.85 at 10:04 a.m. in New York, after rising 1.7 percent during the prior two sessions. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 120.74 points, or 0.7 percent, to 17,538.01. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.7 percent. Trading in S&P 500 shares was 14 percent lower than the 30-day average at this time of day. US exchanges will close early on Thursday for the Christmas holiday and reopen on Dec. 28.
GeoPark has struck an oil sales deal with Trafigura worth $100million. The funding agreement will see GeoPark sell and deliver to Trafigura a portion of its Colombian crude oil production.
Transocean said the stock exchange in Switzerland has approved the company's application to delist its shares. The company, which yesterday announced a contract win with Faroe Petroleum, said the SIX delisting will come into affect from the end of March next year.
Woodside Petroleum said its spending for the next year will be an estimated $170million lower than previously planned.
A US oil and gas producer has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as the low oil price continues. Magnum Hunter said it expects to emerge from bankruptcy in April next year.
Front end engineering specialist Xodus cited “challenging” market conditions as it reported an £18.5million pre-tax loss in last year. The Aberdeen and London-based firm was hit by bad debts and wrote off a number of intercompany loans involving some of its international join venture businesses, although turnover rose 12% to £58.6million in 2014.
Morgan Stanley plans on winding down a group that develops and structures North American solar projects as part of a plan to reduce up to 25% of jobs in its fixed income business, according to reports. The company is reducing its staffing numbers by around 1,200 workers across the globe.
EU antitrust regulators have dropped Shell, BP and Statoil from an investigation into alleged rigging of ethanol benchmarks. The European Commission said it had, however, opened a formal investigation into the actions of Abengoa, Alcogroup and Lantmannenekfor.
The global oil industry is set to repeat this year’s $200 billion of investment cuts in 2016, raising even more concerns than the current slump in crude prices, according to the chief executive officer of Italy’s Eni SpA. "What is worrying me is not the price of today; it is what is happening in the industry,” CEO Claudio Descalzi said in an interview with Bloomberg TV from the COP21 climate change conference in Le Bourget, France. “We cut about $200 billion and I think next year we are going to do the same and that can create in the mid term an imbalance between supply and demand."