Norwegian operator Statoil is reported to have told made staff in the US redundant after they refused to take voluntary redundancy. According to reports in Norwegian press, the staff are amongst around 100 members of staff who have been affected by job losses.
A US Senator has called on the Department of Justice to investigate an alleged fraud by ExxonMobil over what it knew and told the public and shareholders about the cause of climate change. Senator Bernie Sanders has written to Attorney General Loretta Lynch to ask for a probe into what he alleges as a “potential instance of corporate fraud” by the oil giant. In his letter the politician refers to reports from an investigation by Inside Climate News, which says that scientists from the company conducted extensive research on climate change as early as the 1970s.
Volkswagen said it may set aside more than $7billion to cover the costs of the recent emissions scandal if car sales suffer, according to its chief executive.
After a year suffering the economic consequences of the oil price slump, OPEC is finally on the cusp of choking off growth in U.S. crude output. The nation’s production is almost back down to the level pumped in November, when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries switched its strategy to focus on battering competitors and reclaiming market share. As the US wilts, demand for OPEC’s crude will grow in 2015, ending two years of retreat, the International Energy Agency estimates. While cratering prices and historic cutbacks in drilling have taken their toll on the US, OPEC members have also paid a heavy price. A year of plunging government revenues, growing budget deficits and slumping currencies has left several members grappling with severe economic problems. The fact that the US oil boom kept going for about six months after the group’s November decision also means OPEC has so far succeeded only in bringing the market back to where it started.
Weatherford International Plc shareholders are asking the company for one thing this quarter: Please, just be a little more boring. Over the last decade, the oilfield services provider has missed analyst estimates 20 times, settled a corruption probe and spent more than $150 million in professional fees to fix errors in its accounting. And last month, it abandoned plans to raise $1 billion for an acquisition just hours after announcing them. Now the company is seeking to build investor trust amid the worst oil market slump in decades. Chief Executive Officer Bernard Duroc-Danner needs to manage day-to-day activities in a way that will, for the first time in five years, generate more cash than the company spends, said David Anderson, an analyst at Barclays in New York. It’s a target Weatherford set for itself last year but failed to reach.
The White House said the new Canadian Government could do more to address climate change ahead of international negotiations on the issue in Paris. The issue is a top priority for President Barack Obama in his last 15 months in office. A white House spokesman hinted climate change would form part of a phone call from Obama to the newly elected Prime Minister-designate Justin Trudeau.
Oasis Petroleum said crews have successfully plugged an oil well in North Dakota which had been spewing oil and saltwater for a number of days. The Houston-based oil company said the well had been put under control after problems began at the weekend.
Nighthawk said an internal review of its current cost structure would result in a number of staffing changes. The oil development and production company said many of the improvement would begin to come into play later this year. The move includes consolidation of financing and accounting functions in its Denver offices as well as a number of job changes.
Oil major BP has signed a deal worth $350million to sell products storage assets in the US to Kinder Morgan. The move includes 15 refined product terminals and associated infrastructure in the United States. Following the agreement, the companies will form a joint venture limited liability firm terminal business to own 14 of the acquired assets which will be operated by Kinder Morgan.
Wood Group has won a $31million contract from Carbon Creek on their coalbed methane asset in the Powder River basin in the US. The deal will see Wood Group PSN (wgpsn) deliver operations management services to the field in Wyoming which consists of 7,000 drilled wells and up to 12,000 drillable locations. The region, which is the largest of its kind in the region, produces 385 million cubic feet of gas per day.
Halliburton Co., the world’s largest fracking services provider, said it had a third-quarter loss as the volatile North American oil market continued to tumble. The company reported a loss of $54 million, or 6 cents a share, compared with net income of $1.2 billion, or $1.41, a year earlier, the Houston-based company said in a statement Monday on Businesswire. Excluding certain items, the per-share result was 4 cents more than the 27-cent average of 34 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales dropped 36 percent to $5.6 billion. "It was a challenging period," Luke Lemoine, an analyst at Capital One Southcoast in New Orleans who rates the shares the equivalent of a buy and owns none, said in a phone interview before the results were released. "Most people at the beginning of the quarter were expecting things to level off. Well, they continued to more or less crash."
The US State of California has shut down 33 oilfield wells which were allegedly improperly permitted to inject into federally protected water supplies. The move was put into effect late last week affecting oilfield injection wells in the state’s Kern County.
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 US government has launched new curbs on oil and gas exploration in Arctic waters. The move comes after oil major Shell announced it was pulling out of its drilling activity in the region. The US Interior department said as well as cancelling two potential Arctic offshore lease sales and would not extend current leases.
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.
US energy firm Calpine has bought the Granite Ridge Energy Center from Granite Ridge Holding for $500 million.
Chevron Corp is cutting staff on its global energy trading desks this week, sources said on Thursday, making it the latest division to face reductions as part of a $3 billion cost-saving plan brought on by low crude oil prices. The Supply and Trading group, based in Houston, but with offices in Singapore, London and San Ramon, California, may be reduced by as much as 10 percent as part of a company-wide job reduction plan, according to two people familiar with the measures. Six other sources said they were aware of the cuts but could not say how deep they might be. While staff cutbacks are now commonplace across the energy industry as companies adjust to oil prices of $50 a barrel, half what they were a year ago, Chevron's moves this week appeared to be some of the largest to affect trading operations. Some companies have sought to protect the trading desks to help navigate choppy markets.
California's oversight of wells where oil companies dispose of wastewater brought to the surface is hindered by inadequate staffing and poorly organized paper records, a state review of the program said Thursday. In a report to the state legislature, California's Department of Conservation (DOC) found that wastewater injection wells also suffer from inconsistent permitting, monitoring and enforcement of their construction and operation, among other problems. "The division hasn't owned up to its responsibilities as a regulator in the past, but we are rapidly moving towards doing that," Steve Bohlen, head of California's Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources, which oversees the state's drilling activities, said on a conference call with reporters.
Natural gas bulls are herding together. Eight of 12 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg said they’re bullish about prices heading into next week. Contracts have rebounded 2.7 percent on the New York Mercantile Exchange since reaching a three-year low on Oct. 1. Futures may have fallen about 20 cents in the last month, weighed down by a glut of domestic shale supplies and forecasts for a mild winter that could curb demand for the heating fuel. But traders and analysts say that’s old news.
Oil headed for the biggest weekly gain since August amid speculation an increase in demand will ease a global glut. Futures climbed as much as 1 percent in New York and are up 9.4 percent this week. A “new capital discipline” in the industry will allow consumption to catch up with supply, boosting prices, Gary Ross, the founder and chairman of PIRA Energy Group, said Thursday. World oil use will expand more than forecast this year, according to Abdalla Salem El-Badri, the secretary-general of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
A veto threat has been issued by the White House over a US House of Representatives bill that would lift a ban on crude oil exports. It said the legislation was "not needed at this time."
Black Stallion Oil and Gas has acquired the remaining 50% working interest in the Woodrow Prospect in the Alberta basin. The company now holds a 100% working interest in the prospect in Montana. Black Stallion said the prospect could offer multiple opportunities for possible success in oil and gas production across targets at shallow depths.
Oil and gas hedging protections for North American exploration and production companies is expected to plunge next year to just 11% of total production volumes, according to new research. IHS Energy has warned many exploration and production companies could be left at risk of financial stress as a result. The analysis assessed the amount of oil and gas hedging protections in place for 48 small, midsized and large North American companies for the second-half of 2015 and full-year 2016. IHS found while overall hedging for second-half 2015 was largely unchanged from previous analysis one year earlier, North American exploration and production companies have a 28% of total production hedged for the remainder of this year.
ProSep has made a number of changes to its senior team as it looks to strengthen its position amid the oil price decline. The company said Patrick McCarthy, who joined the board of directors one year ago, will become the chief executive. Former boss Neil Poxon will remain with ProSep to oversee the transition until the end of this year.