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Oil Blocks News

29 Dec 2023

Venezuela Slams Deployment of British Warship to Guyana

© Grafvision / Adobe Stock

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday said the deployment of a British warship to waters off the coast of Guyana breaches the "spirit" of an agreement reached between Venezuelan and Guyanese authorities.Guyana and Venezuela agreed earlier this month to avoid the use of force and avoid increasing tensions in the long border dispute over the oil-rich Essequibo territory.The 160,000-square-km (62,000-square-mile) Essequibo region is generally recognized as part of Guyana…

16 Jul 2020

What's Behind Rising Tensions in the South China Sea?

File photo Chinese seismic vessel Haiyang Dizhi 8 (Credit: China Geologic Survey)

The United States this week hardened its position on the South China Sea, where it has accused China of attempting to build a "maritime empire" in the potentially energy-rich waters, despite regional concerns.The rivals have accused each other of stoking tension in the strategic waterway at a time of strained relations over everything from the new coronavirus to trade to Hong Kong.A statement from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on July 13 was the first time the United States…

15 May 2020

Malaysia Calls for Peaceful End to South China Sea Standoff

Haiyang Dizhi 8 seismic survey vessel; Image Credit: China Geologic Survey (File Photo)

Malaysia called on Thursday for disputes over the South China Sea to be resolved by peaceful means, amid a standoff between Chinese and Malaysian vessels that a U.S. think tank said had been going on for months.U.S. and Australian warships arrived in the South China Sea this week near an area where a Chinese government survey vessel, the Haiyang Dizhi 8, has been operating close to a drillship under contract to Malaysian state oil company Petronas, regional security sources have…

19 Nov 2019

Petrobras to be World's Largest Oil Producer

Brazil’s Petrobras is on track to become the world’s largest oil producer among publicly listed companies by 2030, based on Rystad Energy’s latest data and forecasts.Brazil’s biggest-ever oil auctions in November were generally deemed to be disappointing, receiving muted interest from international exploration and production companies.However, national oil company Petrobras could not have asked for a better outcome. The world’s fastest growing oil producer gained nearly full control of more than eight billion barrels of oil in the Buzios field, where a sixth floater is being planned.To develop these and other resources off the coast of the South American country, Brazil is set for a whopping $70 billion offshore capital investment spree between 2020 and 2025, solely on field development.

17 Jul 2019

Vietnam, China in South China Sea Standoff

© lotusjeremy / Adobe Stock

Vietnamese and Chinese ships have been embroiled in a weeks-long standoff near an offshore oil block in disputed waters of the South China Sea, which fall within Vietnam's exclusive economic zone, two Washington-based think-tanks said on Wednesday.China's U-shaped "nine-dash line" marks a vast expanse of the South China Sea that it claims, including large swathes of Vietnam's continental shelf where it has awarded oil concessions.The Haiyang Dizhi 8, a ship operated by the China Geological Survey…

25 Sep 2018

Guyana Puts Oil Auctions on Hold

(File photo: Hexx Corp)

Guyana has put planned oil auctions on hold as the impoverished South American country works to establish a Department of Energy to oversee the energy boom, Minister of State Joseph Harmon said on Monday.Since 1999, Guyana has awarded a group led by Exxon Mobil Corp hundreds of oil blocks along Guyana's maritime borders with Venezuela and Suriname. Their finds are turning Guyana, a country with no history of oil production and relaxed energy regulation, into one of Latin America's hottest prospects for oil investments.Exxon…

31 May 2018

Offshore Oil: Tullow eyes Ghana Assets

Tullow Oil is interested in new oil blocks off Ghana's coast as part of the British explorer's plans to consolidate its operations in the West African nation, Chief Executive Paul McDade said. Tullow is leading two operations offshore Ghana, including the country's flagship 100,000 barrel-per-day Jubilee field, which began commercial production in late 2010. Ghana's energy ministry said this month it would award nine new upstream oil blocks for commercial exploration off its coast beginning this year. "We as a company want to consolidate our presence in Ghana after our investments in Jubilee and TEN (Tweneboa, Enyenra, Ntomme). We don't want to stop there but keep growing," McDade told reporters in Accra, where he was meeting investors.

18 May 2018

Ghana to Award New Oil Blocks off West Coast

FPSO Prof. John Evans Atta Mills (File photo: Tullow)

Ghana is set to award nine new upstream oil blocks for commercial exploration off its western coast beginning this year, the energy ministry said on Thursday.The West African country plans to award six of the nine blocks this year while the remaining three will be given out next year through a mix of open competitive tender and direct negotiations, the ministry said in a statement.It said state oil company Ghana National Petroleum Corporation will acquire one of the blocks to explore in partnership with a strategic partner to develop its technical capacity and become an operator.Ghana, which b

11 Nov 2015

Peru to Cut O&G Royalties to Counter Price Slump

Peru is reducing royalties on oil and gas production to about 5 percent on average from the current 20 percent in order to encourage exploration amid slumping prices, the government said Wednesday. The smaller take should help Peru boost interest in new oil contracts that will come up for bidding soon, said Rafael Zoeger, the president of state energy agency Perupetro. Peru has repeatedly pushed back auctioning on more than two dozen oil blocks because of a lack of interest in recent years. "I'd rather get 5 percent on some production than 20 or 30 on none," Zoeger said at a news conference. Perupetro will tailor royalties for each concession, setting a lower rate for more costly and less accessible areas, he said.

24 Aug 2015

Sonangol to Buy Cobalt's Stake in 2 Offshore Blocks

Photo: Cobalt International Energy

Angolan state oil company Sonangol said it would buy oil and gas producer Cobalt International Energy Inc's 40 percent stake in two oil blocks offshore Angola for $1.75 billion.   Cobalt operates three blocks covering 3.4 million acres off the Angolan coast.     (Reporting by Anannya Pramanick; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

18 Mar 2015

Indonesia Awards Oil Blocks to Shell, Petronas, Pertamina

Indonesia's state-owned Pertamina, Royal Dutch Shell, and Malaysia's Petronas  were among the companies awarded 11 Indonesian oil and gas blocks last year, government officials said on Wednesday. Indonesia offered a total of 16 conventional and unconventional oil and gas blocks last year, Wiratmadja Puja, acting director general of oil and gas at the Indonesian energy and mines ministry said. Government officials previously put the number at 21. "We will bid (another) 12 oil and gas blocks this year -- two conventional blocks and 10 shale gas blocks," Naryanto Wagimin, director oil and gas upstream at the Indonesian energy and mines ministry said, referring to 2015. "We want more realistic (bids) and prioritize the more credible companies." Reporting by Wilda Asmarini

23 Nov 2014

Sapurakencana Wins 3 Petronas Oil blocks

SapuraKencana Petroleum Berhad today announced that it has entered into Sale and Purchase Agreements to acquire the entire interest of PETRONAS in 3 blocks offshore south Vietnam (Blocks 01/97 & 02/97, Blocks 10&11.1, Block 46-CN) for a total purchase price of US$400 million. The economic effective date of the transaction is January 1, 2014 and SapuraKencana is entitled to net revenues from these Blocks from that date. The closing of the transaction is subject to customary condition precedents including the approval of relevant government authorities. SapuraKencana was selected as the winning bidder through an international and professionally managed competitive bidding process.

11 Oct 2014

Uganda to Auction Oil Blocks

Uganda will auction new oil exploration acreage by December and compensate land owners at the site of a planned crude oil refinery, a government official said on Friday. Investor interest in Uganda's hydrocarbons potential has been growing since the east African country discovered commercial crude reserves in 2006, now estimated by government geologists at 6.5 billion barrels. Last month, the energy ministry issued a tender for a consultant to help prepare and package seismic and other data for the exploration fields that will be up for auction. "The consultant will also tell us how many blocks, which ones, what are their value," said Ernest Rubondo, commissioner for Petroleum Exploration and Production Department.

18 Sep 2014

Shell: Nigeria Oil Union Strike Not Affecting Exports

A strike by Nigeria's oil unions is not having any immediate impact on crude oil exports from Africa's top exporter, despite moving into a third day, spokesmen for leading operator Shell and Nigeria LNG said. Nigerian oil unions say the strike could affect exports if no agreement is reached with the government. The spokesman for NLNG, the gas exporter which is run jointly by Shell and the government, said he did not foresee any impact from the strike, which began on Tuesday. The dispute is over pensions and a lack of crude supplied to refineries. Also indicating that the strike has yet to have any impact, the Qua Iboe <BFO-QUA> grade of crude oil for November export came to market on Thursday, on schedule.

16 Jul 2014

Brightoil Eyes Upstream After Bohai Purchase

Hong Kong-listed oil trader Brightoil Petroleum Holdings Ltd said on Wednesday it expects its upstream business to be the key long-term growth driver for the group following its acquisition of oil blocks in China's Bohai Bay. Chief financial officer Danny Tan was speaking at a media briefing on the company's strategy. Brightoil, which is involved in oil trading and also owns tankers and storage facilities, announced in February that it had agreed to buy Anadarko Petroleum Corp's stakes in two oil blocks in Bohai Bay off China's northeast coast for $1.08 billion in a major push into the upstream segment. Reporting by Charlie Zhu

20 Jun 2014

Angola: Tender for 12 Offshore Oil Blocks

Angolan state oil company Sonangol plans to launch a tender for licences to explore 12 new offshore oil blocks in 2015, state news agency Angop cited Oil Minister Jose Botelho de Vasconcelos as saying on Friday. Seven of the new blocks will be located in the Namibe Basin and the remaining five in the Lower Congo Basin, a Sonangol spokesman told Reuters. Angola is Africa's biggest oil producer after Nigeria, with international majors such as France's Total, Italy's ENI, Britain's BP, and U.S. firms Chevron and Exxon Mobil among the main operators in the country. Angop cited Vasconcelos, who was speaking at an oil conference in Moscow, as reiterating Angola's goal of ramping up production to 2 million barrels per day (mbpd) by 2015, from an average of 1.73 mbpd last year.

30 Apr 2014

Argentine Province Expects Big Oil To Bid In Shale Block Auction

Argentina's Neuquen province expects major global energy companies, including Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron Corp and Exxon Mobil Corp , to bid in a May auction of 11 oil blocks, its energy minister said on Wednesday. The exploration and development blocks include conventional and unconventional oil and gas resources, most of them in the vast Vaca Muerta shale formation, considered one of the world's biggest shale deposits. The results are expected for August. "For unconventionals, the players will be the majors," Neuquen Energy Minister Guillermo Coco said in Houston on a road show to attract foreign capital. "Chevron, Exxon, Shell have shown interest in Vaca Muerta.

17 Nov 2011

Mercator Announces H1 Results

For the half year period ended 30th September, 2011, Mercator Lines Ltd. registered 25% growth in Total Income which stood at Rs.1584 crores (Rs.1268 crores). The Consolidated Net Profit for the period stood at Rs.21.41 crores (Rs.113.22 crores). During the period, the Coal Division contributed 58% revenue while Dry Bulk contributed 22%; Tanker 10%; Dredging 5% and Offshore Division 5%. The coal volumes are expected to further improve in the coming quarters. The recent coal mine acquired in Indonesia would commence commercial operations in the last quarter of FY12. The Oil and Gas Division has successfully commissioned FPU unit in Nigeria and the operations are doing well as per schedule. Exploration activities of two onshore oil blocks in Gujarat are on schedule.

10 Dec 2007

Total to Invest in Iran's LNG Project

Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said that the French oil company, Total, has voiced preparedness to make a $12b investment in Iran's Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an international meeting dubbed 'Geopolitical Developments of Energy and the Role of Natural Gas' here in Tehran on Sunday, the minister noted Total's readiness for investments in Iran, and stressed that the US sanctions against Iran's oil sector have produced no effect. Nozari said that Indian companies have voiced preparedness to launch oil exploration operations in 17 different Iranian oil blocks, adding that Iran and the Chinese Sinopec Company were likely to sign a contract for the development of Yadavaran oil field by the end of the day.

05 Feb 2008

Indonesia Oil Targes 1.05m Barrels/day

Indonesia has renewed oil production target at 1.05 million barrels per day (bpd), slightly above the initial target of 1.03 bpd, according to a report found on http://news.xinhuanet.com. Chevron is expected to become the largest contributor with some 440,000 bpd from its oil blocks in Sumatra and Kalimantan, while state-run oil firm Pertamina may add 145,000 bpd. Other major producers include Conoco Philips, China National Offshore Oil Corp., Medco, Total EP and Petro China

24 Oct 2007

Tanzania Offers Six Oil Blocks for Exploration

Tanzania has invited energy explorers to bid for six blocks in the east African nation that is fast becoming a new frontier in the hunt for oil and gas. According to a statement by the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation seen by Reuters, the six blocks are all inland and stretch from the southeast of the country to the northwest. Bidders have until December 3 to submit their documents. Tanzania has at least 14 companies exploring at sites both on and offshore, and it has so far found three areas with natural gas deposits. Its last licensing round was in 2004. Prospectors are studying east Africa afresh as insecurity in other parts of the continent and increasing energy nationalism elsewhere push them to seek new sources.

05 Nov 2007

Contracts for Three Exploration Blocks to be Finalized Soon

National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) exploration manager said the contracts of three of the 17 oil blocks put out to tender will be finalized soon. Reportedly, 23 domestic and foreign companies have purchased the documents of 17 blocks, saying the majority of purchasers are international giants. Iran is attempting to lure international oil and gas companies to invest despite rising pressure from the U.S. over its nuclear energy program. Iran has this year been promoting an international exploration tender for 17 onshore and offshore blocks. The original deadline for receiving offers was June, but the NIOC announced early that month that it was extending the limit by a further month.

31 Dec 2012

Offshore W. Africa Drilling Contract

Elenilto, with state oil company Petrosen, awarded Production Sharing Contract (PSC) by the Government of the Republic of Senegal. The contract is to develop the prospective Senegal Offshore Sud Shallow Oil block. Elenilto will be the operator of the block and Petrosen will have minority participation interest in the project. The block is 7,920 sq km and is located in Southern Senegal Casamance offshore basin. Oil Resources volumetric assessment based on reprocessed 2D seismic coverage indicates potential of 500-800 million barrels of oil in first priority leads. Other deeper possibilities are highly likely and will be explored by Elenilto, who have selected two areas of interest as first priority for immediate further exploration and they intend to begin the 3D seismic survey shortly.