Oil giant Chevron said it will cut its budget by 24% next year as it aims to control spending following the decline in oil price. The company said it would spend $26.6billion in 2016, with the bulk of spending planned on international oil and gas exploration and production projects.
Syria’s government has accused the US-led coalition of launching air strikes on a Syrian army camp that killed three soldiers and wounded 13. The US has denied the claim, saying the alliance carried out four air strikes against oil wells in the province - all of them miles away from the alleged location of the incident. The city of Deir el-Zour, where the purported strikes happened on Sunday, is mainly held by the Islamic State group, but the Syrian government maintains a presence in some parts of it.
The Russian defence ministry has claimed the US has turned a “blind eye” to oil allegedly being trafficked from Syria across the border to Turkey. In a statement the ministry claimed the oil being moved was from areas under the control of Islamic State.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) is set to takeover America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA). The move could see the groups become a stronger powerhouse after approval was granted by both board of directors. It means the two groups will combine into a single trade association, beginning next year.
It’s going to take more than a 16-cent rally to spook the bears in the U.S. natural gas market. Hedge funds boosted their net-short position in gas contracts by 6.8 percent to a record 166,165 in the week ended Nov. 3, even as prices jumped 7.7 percent, according to U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data. Long wagers rose for the first time in six weeks. Speculators have raised bearish bets six out of the last seven weeks as gas supplies keep flowing out of U.S. shale formations. Stockpiles swelled to 3.929 trillion cubic feet last week, matching an all-time high. Warmer-than-usual weather will continue to sap demand for the heating fuel through the third week of November, forecasts from Commodity Weather Group LLC show.
Police in Canada visited Pennsylvania to learn more about how to deal with public resistance to shale gas development. According to reports, the Halifax Media Co-op obtained a partial travel itinerary as well as approved budgetary expense which showed $12,082 was spent on the four day-trip. The travel event was titled “Shale Gas – Police Opportunities” and took place between June 2 and June 5 last year.
INEOS has struck a deal with ExxonMobil Chemical and Shell Chemicals Europe to supply ethane from US shale gas from Grangemouth to the Fife Ethylene Plant. The purchase agreement will be from the middle of 2017 and it is hoped access to this source will help complement supplies from North Sea natural gas fields. Geir Tuft, business director at INEOS O&P UK, said the deal was a “landmark agreement”.
The Keystone XL review suddenly looks like a priority for the Obama administration, and cheap oil may be part of the reason. After dragging its feet for years to dodge one of the most contentious energy issues during President Barack Obama’s time in office, the administration took only a couple of days to deny a TransCanada Corp. request to pause the process while the company sought approval in Nebraska. The collapse of crude prices in the face of the US shale boom has lowered gasoline prices, weakening an argument for the $8-billion project that resonated with American voters. This has paved the way for Obama to focus on one issue that’s very dear to him: climate change.
Magnolia Petroleum has begun a 10 well drilling programme targeting the Woodford formation in the Central Oklahoma Oil Province play. An estimated 3.2billion barrels of oil have already been recovered from 60 reservoirs. Magnolia has a stake in each of the 10 wells which are operated by Continental Resources.
TransCanada Corporation has sent a letter to US Secretary of State John Kerry calling for the State Department to pause its review of the Presidential Permit application for the Keystone XL pipeline. The company said it believes there is “sound precedent” for making the request.
Supernova Energy has started drilling on its Antle lease in Kentucky. Three wells have so far been drilled to a depth of 1650feets as part of the farm-out agreement signed earlier this year.
NOV (National Oilwell Varco) said one of its directors has resigned from the company. Robert Beauchamp will be replace din his role by William Thomas who has been serving as chief executive of EOG Resources. He previously held other leadership positions with the company including senior executive vice president.
Fairway Energy Partners has awarded Wood Group a contract to provide engineering, design and procurement services for the Pierce Junction crude oil facility in Houston. The win has been awarded to Wood Group Mustang who will provide services to Fairway as they build out the surface facilities that support the crude oil storage facility.
Caza Oil & Gas has secured a further extension on its financing arrangement with Apollo Investment Corporation. The company entered into a Note Purchase Agreement two years ago when Apollo agreed to purchase up to $50million of it senior secured notes. In September it was revealed the balance of the Note Purchase Agreement remained at $45million and although expected to comply with certain financial requirements, Caza was found to not be in full compliance.
Crude was poised to end the month below $50 a barrel for the fourth time amid a global glut that’s showing no signs of relief for oil and gas companies that posted more than $19 billion in writedowns in a single week. Futures slid as much as 1.3 percent in New York. Output from Iraq, the second-biggest OPEC producer, exceeds 4 million barrels a day, Oil Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said, according to the Almada news website.
Big US oil companies are starting to think small. A stubborn 16-month crude rout with no end in sight is driving the largest US oil producers away from costly, high- risk megaprojects long touted as the industry’s future and toward safer shale operations that generate the cash needed to satisfy anxious investors. Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips and Hess Corp. have all either delayed or abandoned projects that range from the deep seas of the Gulf of Mexico to Canada’s oil sands and the US Arctic. At the same time, Exxon and Chevron both announced plans to substantially increase US crude production, largely as a result of their shale operations.
Vantage Drilling said its subsidiary will be reducing it headcount at a site in the Gulf of Mexico in a bid to streamline costs. The company said around 135 employees faced losing their jobs with the first round of cuts already started.
Oil giant BP reported a 40% drop in quarterly earnings after it was impacted by low crude prices, but still came in ahead of analysts’ forecasts. The firm’s underlying replacement cost profit for the third quarter was 1.819 billion US dollars (£1.185 billion), compared with 3.037 billion US dollars (£1.979 million) a year ago. However, the FTSE 100 Index was down 17.4 points to 6400.1, led lower by miners and uncertain prospects for global trade.
Oil extended losses from the lowest close in two months before U.S. government data forecast to show crude stockpiles expanded in the world’s biggest consumer. Futures slid as much as 1.5 percent in New York, falling for a third day. Inventories probably rose by 3.1 million barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg survey before an Energy Information Administration report Wednesday. Algeria supports Venezuela’s call for a summit of heads of state from OPEC and other oil-exporting nations to lift prices, Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra said in Paris. Oil’s rally above $50 a barrel earlier this month failed as surging U.S. inventories bolstered speculation that a global glut will be prolonged. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries continues to pump above its quota and the International Energy Agency sees world crude supplies remaining ample until at least the middle of 2016.
A pipeline to America’s largest crude-oil hub is about to find itself in an unfamiliar position: not full. One of the main pipelines that carries crude to Cushing, Oklahoma, will run at less than capacity in December for the first time in nearly two and a half years. The drop in supply coincides with the opening of a pipeline to Quebec, giving shippers the option of diverting some oil from the middle of the U.S. “There will be less light sweet crude available to make its way to Cushing,” said Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates LLC in Houston. “There’s going to be some significant rebalancing of where oil flows in North America.”
Before the Energy Transitions Commission was even launched here in Houston a few weeks ago, environmentalists had already dismissed it as a public relations ploy by major oil companies and other peddlers of fossil fuels. They immediately questioned the climate change credentials of companies like Shell, which is one of the leaders of the initiative to help meet the energy needs of growing world population without damaging the environment beyond repair. Just a few weeks ago, activists from the environmental community took to their kayaks and posed for pictures in front of Shell’s Polar Pioneer rig moored in Seattle. Paddles raised in defiance, they decried the company’s plans to drill in the Arctic.
BHP Billiton Ltd. is snapping up oil- exploration prospects from the US to Australia and flagged this week that it’s seeking to make more similar investments. There’s speculation it’ll also target deals for operating wells and mines. With signs the commodity rout may be bottoming, conventional petroleum and copper assets are probably of most interest to the world’s biggest miner, according to Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. and Fat Prophets. BHP Chief Executive Officer Andrew Mackenzie said in August the company would look at the possibility of acquisitions, though wouldn’t overpay and would only consider the best assets. Mining companies with strong balance sheets, including BHP, which sold about $6.5 billion of hybrid securities last week, should scrap their dividend policies to help seize on cheap high-quality assets, according to Jefferies Group LLC analysts. The average premium on pending and completed deals worth at least $500 million in the mining and oil and gas sectors has fallen to 30 percent this year from 47 percent in 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Regulators in North Dakota have given approval to a credit system for oil producers collecting more natural gas than required from their wells. The move is a bid to curb flaring, according to reports.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has approved a drilling permit for Conoco Phillips in Alaska. The decision was awarded on the proposed Greater Mooses Tooth Unit oil and gas development project. It will open the way for the first production oil and gas from federal land in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska.
A Senator has urged the US Government to disclose whether any oil swaps with Mexico have been finalised after transactions were approved in August. Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski who heads the Senate’s energy committee, wrote to Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker calling for further details. Administration officials previously said the Commerce Department was “acting favourably” on a number of applications to export US crude in exchange from imported oil from Mexico.