Oil Producing Countries News

Euronav deepened its quarterly net loss as the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant of the coronavirus dragged on the recovery of the crude tanker market, the Belgian shipping group said on Thursday."We believe this is a temporary pause," Chief Executive Hugo De Stoop said in a statement, predicting a rebound in oil supply, restocking requirements of global crude inventory and consumption to pre-pandemic levels in 2022.Output cuts by the OPEC+ group of oil-producing countries have constrained global crude oil exports during the pandemic…

Leading tanker operator Euronav posted record high first-quarter results on Thursday and expects strong demand for oil storage at sea to continue in 2020, driving its shares up 8.5%.The world is still struggling with an oil glut due to a drop in demand caused by the coronavirus even after top oil producing countries have cut output. The glut has prompted a scramble to find storage options on land and sea.Hugo De Stoop, chief executive of Belgian group Euronav, said floating storage…

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.

The energy research and business intelligence company Rystad Energy expects that a short-lived price rally through the first half of 2020 as oil prices approach $70 a barrel.It will then lose momentum and be replaced by a need for additional production cuts by Russia and the cartel of oil producing countries, OPEC, the Norway-headquartered firm said.“We retain our bullish stance for the second half of 2019 and first half of 2020 as we anticipate OPEC+ to extend production cuts through 2019, while we also expect bullish oil market effects due to the introduction of IMO 2020 regulations on sulfur content in marine fuels,” says Bjørnar Tonhaugen, Head of Oil Market Research at Rystad Energy.He added: “However, the effects of the IMO 2020 ‘scramble’ will likely be short-lived.

Qatar said Monday that it will leave the oil cartel OPEC on January 1 after nearly 60 years. The announcement was made in a series of tweets.Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, announced Qatar’s withdrawal from OPEC and said the organization was informed.Qatar is one of the cartel’s smallest oil producers, but is the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas.The abrupt annoucement from the small, gas-rich state that it would sever ties with the influential oil cartel of 15 oil-producing countries after almost six decades has surprised the oil and gas industry around the world.However, the Gulf nation's state oil company, Qatar Petroleum, made another announcement in a tweet.

Brazil has more than doubled the number of risky ship-to-ship oil transfers this year, but its monitoring of such offshore maneuvers is lax, to a point where a July 2017 collision between two tankers was not reported, according to a Reuters review of government and shipping records.Transfers are projected to keep rising as the country's deep-water discoveries have lured major companies including Exxon Mobil Corp and Royal Dutch Shell Plc to recent offshore auctions. During these maneuvers, ships pull alongside one another and oil is transferred to a vessel via high-pressure hoses.

Exxon Mobil Corp and its partners now expect the large Stabroek oil block offshore Guyana to contain about 25 percent more recoverable resources than estimated, they said on Monday.Exxon and U.S.-based partner Hess Corp said more than 4 billion barrels of oil equivalent could be recovered from the Stabroek block, which is part of one of the biggest oil discoveries in the world in the last decade.The previous estimate was 3.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent, Exxon, the world's largest publicly traded oil producer, said.Besides Exxon and Hess, China's CNOOC is also part of the consortium that is interested in Guyana's Atlantic coast resources.Exxon said production from Stabroek could reach over 750…

Singapore fuel oil trading volumes have soared after the 380-cst front-month time spreads widened by around $1 per tonne from the previous day's close, in what could develop into an aggressive trade strategy that occasionally rattles this market. The 380-cst March/April time spreads on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) saw about 700,000 tonnes in contracts trade after physical trading in the S&P Global Platts Market-on-Close (MOC) price assessments concluded at 0830 GMT on Tuesday. The flurry took the spreads to about $1.70 a tonne in post-European trade by 0400 GMT on Wednesday, from around plus 70 cents a tonne previously. Traders…

Oil prices jumped 4 percent on Tuesday, bouncing back from multi-month lows on expectations that OPEC will agree later this month to cut production to reduce a supply glut. Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih is expected to travel to the Qatari capital, Doha, this week for meetings with oil-producing countries on the sidelines of an energy forum, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is due to meet on Nov. 30 to agree to limit output. An outline deal was reached in September but negotiations on the detail are proving difficult, officials say. Traders and analysts also pointed to a report from Monday about a last ditch effort by OPEC to bring the world's top producers together to rein in production…

Cuba's chronic goods trade deficit widened by $1.5 billion in 2015 as exports fell 24 percent and imports rose 3 percent, the government said on Wednesday, in the first data showing a commodity crash has hurt the economy. The information, released on the National Statistics Office web page did not cover Cuba's large service exports. Prices for key Cuban exports such as sugar, nickel and refined oil products all tumbled last year. The Communist-run country began cutting back on its 2016 import orders last year and has been slow in making some payments to creditors and suppliers. Cuba orders much of its imports a year in advance. Cuban…

The uncertainty around the direction of the tanker market has increased since the start of 2016. At current production levels, the markets for both crude oil and (certain) refined products seem oversupplied, which supports healthy spot rates for both crude oil and product tankers. Tanker market bulls argue that if crude producers keep pumping oil at full tilt and refiners continue to process it at high levels, the tanker market will have another banner year. Tanker rates will be particularly strong if the oversupplied oil markets lead to significant levels of floating storage. Although reports continue to surface about the potential for floating storage, actual market activity has been fairly limited so far.

On the back of low bunker prices and more new buildings to be delivered in 2016, chemical shipping freight rates for both contracts of affreightment and spot cargoes will be under pressure throughout 2016, as there are some new operators looking to break into the long-haul trade routes, according to the latest edition of the Chemical Forecaster, published by global shipping consultancy Drewry. More and more larger vessels were delivered during 2015; a total of 193 ships, aggregating 7.4 million dwt with an average vessel size of 38,390 dwt hit the water during the year.

APM Terminals’ increased invested capital to USD $6.2 billion in 2015 as ongoing strategic plans to drive portfolio growth, improve productivity and safety performance, generated USD $4.2 billion in revenue, and a profit for the year of USD $654 million. Portfolio throughput weighted by equity share was 36 million TEUs for 2015, and when not including the divestment or exit of operations in Houston, Jacksonville, and Charleston, USA and a share in the Med-Center Terminal in Gioia Tauro, Italy, volume declined 1.1% from the year prior, while the overall global container market grew by 1.3%. Lower oil prices in 2015 affected APM Terminals bottom line, as reduced oil revenue resulted in declines in import cargo into oil producing countries in West Africa, Russia and Brazil.

Brazil's Subsalt Polygon, an offshore area that has already yielded some of the world's largest recent oil finds, may hold enough undiscovered petroleum and gas to supply the world's current oil needs for more than five years, researchers said. The Polygon, which covers most of Brazil's Santos and Campos offshore sedimentary basins, contains at least 176 billion barrels of undiscovered, recoverable resources of oil and natural gas (barrels of oil equivalent), according to study released last week by Cleveland Jones and Hernane Chaves of the National Institute of Oil and Gas (INOG) at Rio de Janeiro-State University. That is more than four times the 30 billion to 40 billion boe already discovered in the area.

33 countries and a number of international organisations have just met at the IMO headquarters in London under the chairmanship of Denmark and Indonesia. On this occasion, liability for damages and the obligation to take out insurance in connection with transboundary oil pollution damage resulting from offshore activities were considered, and this has resulted in the drafting of guidance that is expected to be presented to the IMO Legal Committee in the spring of 2016. On several occasions, Denmark and Indonesia have tried to make the IMO undertake to develop an international convention in this area, but resistance from a number of major oil producing countries have made this impossible until now.

Shipping corridors used by Gulf energy exporters are not at risk from violence and political volatility in Yemen and the seizure of swathes of territory in the region by Islamic State militants, a senior U.S. naval officer said on Monday. Vice Admiral John Miller, Commander of U.S. Naval Central Command, told a conference in Abu Dhabi that a "robust" U.S. and international maritime presence was helping to minimise threats to oil-producing countries in the region. "As dynamic as the region is today, what we have seen over the past years is the maritime atmosphere has been safe, the free flow of commerce has been stable and secure," said Miller, also Commander of U.S. 5th Fleet/Combined Maritime Forces.

The American Salvage Association’s Jon Waldron provides the ultimate cabotage primer. There always seems to be constant chatter about waiving the Jones Act. In reality, it is a simple task to demystify the thought that it is easy to obtain such waivers. The fact that Senator Landrieu’s comments were not directed against any potential waiver of the Jones Act shows the controversy that Jones Act waivers can rise in the maritime and energy sectors. In reality, however, there exists a misconception amongst many about the ease of obtaining a waiver to the Jones Act. Accordingly, this article will discuss the requirements for obtaining a waiver, analyze key past Jones Act waivers, and look to possibilities for future Jones Act waivers.

The drop in global oil prices should not affect the spending plans of oil-producing countries in the Middle East in the near-term given their large financial reserves, the head of the IMF's Middle East and Central Asia Department said on Friday. The official, Masood Ahmed, told reporters that every oil producer in the region outside of the Gulf Cooperation Council and Bahrain were running fiscal deficits, and that the drop in prices would push those budget gaps even wider. However, he said their sizable financial reserves would allow those countries to continue with their spending plans in the short-term, although the price drop has raised a longer-term issue. (Reporting by Anna Yukhananov; Editing by Tim Ahmann and Paul Simao)

The GAC Group says it is bringing its African market knowledge to US clients in and around the global energy hub of Houston, Texas, with the posting of Gerrit Laubscher, Business Development Manager - Oil & Gas for Sub-Saharan Africa, to share his expertise and focus on promoting trade and cooperation between key energy players in the USA and African oil producing countries. From the GAC North America Logistics (formerly known as GEMS) base in Houston, Gerrit will serve as a bridge between the two regions, offering regional expertise and guidance, in-depth local insight and market intelligence direct to customers looking to work in Sub-Saharan Africa. He will work closely with GAC’s Houston oil & gas team to broaden the exposure of global clients in his home market.

There are many different views on the future of energy supplies, but strong agreement in two areas; over the next 25 years or so population growth and GDP growth in the developing economies, particularly China and India, will drive global energy demand to increase by some 50% and second; while oil’s share of the energy mix will decline, the largest growth will be in consumption of natural gas. Why? Natural gas is an outstanding fuel for power generation, gas-fired power plant has the lowest Capex…

Dr. Peter Idabor, Director General, National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) was quoted by  local media as announcing the fine against Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo), when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Environment, reports 'AfriqueJet - Afrique Actualité Information'. He said the sum was an “administrative penalty” considering the large quantity of crude oil discharged into the environment by SNEPCo and the impact of the incident on the water and aquatic life. The 40,000 barrels of crude oil that were spilled at Bonga impacted approximately on 950 square kilometres of water surface…

According to International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka, the 28 IEA member countries have agreed to release 60 million barrels of oil in the coming month in response to the ongoing disruption of oil supplies from Libya. This supply disruption has been underway for some time and its effect has become more pronounced as it has continued. The normal seasonal increase in refiner demand expected for this summer will exacerbate the shortfall further. Greater tightness in the oil market threatens to undermine the fragile global economic recovery. In deciding to take this collective action, IEA member countries agreed to make 2 million barrels of oil per day available from their emergency stocks over an initial period of 30 days.

The World Oil Supply Report,a new study published by energy analysts Douglas-Westwood is now available. The World Oil Supply Report considers all existing and potential oil producing countries and forecasts their likely future oil reserve depletion, year and level of peak production. It includes all known and 'yet to find' oil reserves including onshore & offshore, deepwater and shallow water, and unconventional resources such as oil sands. The data is then combined to give a view on the limits to global oil production. The report defines the year in which oil supplies will be unable to continue to meet demand. production, its volume, and the resultant maximum production level for world oil supplies.