South Korea's S-Oil Corp 010950.KS said on Monday it expected global demand for refined oil products to continue to grow in the fourth quarter and next year, supporting refining margins. S-Oil, whose main shareholder is Saudi Aramco SDABO.UL, reported a $10.97 million operating income in the third quarter, compared with 606.2 billion won in the second quarter, due to lower refining margins and inventory related losses.
Oil held near $47 a barrel after Chinese government data showed the economy expanded quicker than forecast in the world’s second-biggest crude user. Futures were little changed in New York after advancing 1.9 percent Friday. Gross domestic product rose 6.9 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
The oiliest county in Texas has seen its new natural gas production capacity more than double as drillers home in on their most profitable acreage. The peak output rate from new gas wells in Karnes County has surged 134 percent since January, estimates from Drillinginfo show. The only other county in Texas’s Eagle Ford shale patch where new gas capacity’s gaining is Live Oak, about 50 miles southwest of Karnes, the Austin-based energy data provider said. Gas producers are focusing on the most prolific parts of their plays as they grapple with the worst price collapse since 2008, and Karnes County has long been a sweet spot in Texas’s Eagle Ford formation. The 20,000-square-mile shale play supplies about one-sixth of the nation’s crude.
Three months ago, the head of Schlumberger Ltd. thought the industry had seen the worst of the US oil rout. Now he’s not so sure. Chief Executive Officer Paal Kibsgaard said in July that a recovery might begin by the end of the year. That’s been delayed, Kibsgaard’s said in a statement Thursday as Schlumberger reported a 49 percent drop in third-quarter profit. The market is "increasingly challenging with activity expected to be reduced further," Kibsgaard said.
Freeport-McMoRan has appointed two new members to its board of directors. The move comes a day after the company revealed it would be considering whether to make changes to the oil and gas side of its business. Andrew Langham and Courtney Mather will join the team which is comprised of 11 directors, nine independent directors and two executive directors.
China’s slowdown and tumbling commodity prices will push global economic growth this year to the lowest level since the recession year 2009, the International Monetary Fund has predicted. In a report in advance of the IMF-World Bank annual meetings in Lima, Peru, this week, the fund said the world economy will grow 3.1% this year, down from a July forecast of 3.3% and from 3.4% growth last year. “The risks seem more tilted to the downside than they did just a few months ago,” IMF chief economist Maurice Obstfeld told reporters. Mr Obstfeld downplayed the risk of a global recession, however.
Magma Global has raised $60million from strategic investment capital partners and existing investors to support it growth plans. The company said the proceeds of the investment round will be used to the expansion of its manufacturing capabilities and to provide additional working capital to support its rental business.
The London market climbed higher, buoyed by takeover speculation at commodity giant Glencore. The FTSE 100 Index was 133.6 points higher at 6263.2, as the global equity volatility seen in recent weeks shows little sign of abating. France’s Cac 40 was up more than 3%, while Germany’s DAX lifted by around 2%.
Trading of Max Petroleum ordinary shares are due to be cancelled from the London Stock Exchange amid uncertainty over the company’s financial future.
Tethys Petroleum said it had acknowledged an offer by Olisol Investment Group earlier this month. The bid comes as the company continues ongoing negotiations with Nostrum Oil & Gas on the terms of a proposed offer. Earlier this month, Olisol had come forward to offer the company $8million by way of share subscriptions at $0.16 per common share.
Energy customers are facing a potential “Halloween horror” from rocketing bills - as 12 fixed dual fuel deals are due to expire at the end of October. Comparison website GoCompare.com said that households on the deals which are set to end stand to see an average annual increase in their bills of £147.95 or 15.2% if they sit tight and allow themselves to be rolled onto their supplier’s standard variable tariff.
Concho Resources said its has priced an upsized public offering of more than seven million shares of its common stock for total gross proceeds of $712million. The company said underwriters have an option of 30 days to purchase up to an additional 1,115,000 shares of common stock from the firm. Analysts have backed the move as a sensible way for it to benefit from its strong equity price.
Shares in Tullow Oil closed 9.6% higher last night after the London-listed firm said that its credit facilities remain unchanged following an asset assessment. The company said that it demonstrates the continued support of its lending banks during this period of low oil prices.
The Scot at the helm of oil trading giant Vitol said yesterday he saw signs emerging of a better balance between global oil supply and demand. Ian Taylor refused to speculate on where oil prices may be headed next, adding: “Traders always get these things wrong.” But addressing delegates of the Kazenergy Eurasian Forum in Kazakhstan, he said the market seemed to be settling after months of volatility.
Tecnicas Reunidas has been awarded a $310million contract from Abu Dhabi Oil Company Limited (ADOC) for early production facilities in the Haild field. The contract work is expected to last around 20 months and consists of onshore works to be developed in the islands of Mubarraz and Hail.
Pilot Energy has reached a settlement agreement with Royale Energy following a dispute over the Western Block project in Alaska. The company said under the terms the parties have agreed to release each other from all current and future claims relating to the disagreement.
Pipeline company Energy Transfer Equity (ETE) is set to buy Williams Cos in a deal worth $37.7billion. Williams Investors will get $43.50 per share either in cash or stock of Energy Transfer Corp. The potential deal first became public knowledge in June when Williams had rejected an offer from ETE which is said was too low.
Kenya and Uganda ended months of debate in August to sign an agreement on an oil pipeline costing almost $4 billion. Finding the money to build it and companies to start pumping crude may be a harder task. The 1,500-kilometer (930-mile) pipeline is key for exporting the region’s crude when production finally begins -- 2018 in Uganda’s case. With oil prices languishing below $50 a barrel, there’s little incentive for companies such as Tullow Oil Plc, Africa Oil Corp., China’s CNOOC Ltd. and France’s Total SA to keep investing. “The lower oil price has created a great deal more of uncertainty around future oil production, given that additional capital expenditure will be required to make oil production a reality,” Razia Khan, head of Africa economic research at Standard Chartered Plc in London, said in an e-mailed response to questions.
Japanese stocks fell, dragged down by energy explorers as oil prices declined and mobile carriers after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for lower phone rates. Mobile carriers NTT Docomo Inc., KDDI Corp. and SoftBank Group Corp. sank at least 5.5 percent after Abe said reducing the burden on households from mobile phone fees is an important issue to tackle. Energy explorer Inpex Corp. declined 6 percent as crude oil traded below $45 a barrel. Kansai Electric Power Co. climbed 1.9 percent as utilities led gains on the Topix index. Shipper Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd. jumped 1.8 percent after Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. raised its investment rating. The Topix slipped 0.9 percent to 1,466.37 as of 12:58 p.m. in Tokyo, swinging from a gain of 0.5 percent after last week capping its biggest weekly increase in almost two months. Volume was 34 percent below the 30-day intraday average. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average dropped 1.4 percent to 18,001.12. Both the Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan are holding policy meetings this week.
Stocks in the United Arab Emirates fluctuated between gains and losses as one of the nation’s biggest sources of revenue retreated for a second week and uncertainty about an increase in Federal Reserve’s interest rates weighed on sentiment. The ADX General Index rose as much as 0.5 percent before declining 0.2 percent at 10:23 a.m. local time. The DFM General Index was little changed. The UAE holds almost 6 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves. Brent crude ended the week 3 percent lower after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said a global supply surplus could force prices as low as $20 a barrel.
India’s Power Minister Piyush Goyal said disputes blocking a hydroelectricity project worth at least $1.4 billion have been cleared, part of a drive to revitalize the industry as he targets an unprecedented expansion in renewable energy. Resolving the years-long delay in the Teesta-III project in northeastern Sikkim state near China will make hydroelectricity more alluring to investors, according to Goyal. One of his major challenges is finding the $200 billion India needs for a goal of 175 gigawatts of green-energy capacity by 2022. “If you go back in history for the last five years, the entire hydel industry has come to a standstill in India,” Goyal, a 51-year-old former banker and chartered accountant, said in an interview in New Delhi on Tuesday. “We’re going to revive it.”
A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S’s oil unit cut $1 billion off its annual budget for capital expenditure after petroleum prices plunged. Maersk Oil plans long-term capex in the range of $2 billion to $4 billion a year compared with a previous range of $3 billion to $5 billion, according to an investor presentation in Copenhagen on Wednesday. The new forecast doesn’t include funds to be spent on acquisitions, which the company says it’s still pursuing. Maersk Oil is following the rest of the industry in cutting jobs and lowering investments after crude prices dropped about 50 percent over the past 12 months. The company says it has lowered unit costs by about 33 percent over the past year and completed 600 job cuts by the end of June.
Gulf Arab stocks were poised for the longest winning streak since April following a surge in Asian equities and oil’s biggest gain this month. The Bloomberg GCC200 Index, a gauge of 200 of the region’s biggest and most-liquid shares, rose 1.9 percent as of 1:20 p.m. in Riyadh. That put it on track for a fifth-day gaining and the highest close in almost three weeks. The measure climbed above its 20-day moving average for the first time since July 27.
The company that runs the refinery at Grangemouth suffered a £16.4million loss last year despite an increase in turnover, accounts have revealed. Petroineos Manufacturing Scotland, which is jointly owned by Swiss-based multinational chemicals firm Ineos and PetroChina, said trading at the refinery was hit by cheaper gas imports and “slow growth in Europe”. The losses come despite having slashed costs by £32.9million last year in the wake of a bitter industrial dispute at the refinery in 2013.
Oil pared a second weekly advance amid a persistent global glut while Venezuela and Russia agreed to a plan to address the slide in prices. Futures fell as much as 1.3 percent and were 2.2 percent higher for the week in New York. OPEC member Venezuela and Russia, the largest oil exporter outside the group, reached an agreement on “initiatives” to bring stability to the market, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said, according to the nation’s state- run news agency AVN. The world’s crude surplus will last longer than predicted, Societe Generale SA reported this week. Oil has fluctuated after capping the biggest three-day rally in 25 years on Monday. Crude is still down more than 20 percent from this year’s closing peak in June as leading members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries sustain output and U.S. crude stockpiles remain almost 100 million barrels above the five-year seasonal average.