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Oil Revenue News

20 Oct 2023

Strait of Hormuz: The World's Most Important Oil Artery

© Lotharingia / Adobe Stock

The Israel-Hamas war has raised the spectre of a wider regional conflict which could embroil Iran and other regional factions.Analysts and market observers say the conflict could prompt the United States to tighten sanctions on Iran, which may spur Tehran to take retaliatory action against ships in the Strait in Hormuz.The Marshall Islands registry, one of the world's top shipping flags, last week flagged that vessels with links to Israel or the United States may face a heightened threat of attack within Israeli territorial waters…

13 Jan 2023

Guyana's Oil Exports Double, with Europe Taking Half of Cargoes

(File photo: Hess Corp)

Guyana's oil exports jumped 164% last year, boosted by growing output and demand for the newest Latin American oil producer's light sweet crudes, particularly in Europe, where thirsty refiners ramped up imports to replace Russian supplies.Since a consortium led by Exxon Mobil began pumping in late 2019, Guyana's shipments have soared, bringing the South American nation's oil export income to $1.1 billion last year, according to official figures provided to Reuters.The government's $1.1 billion share of oil revenue was up sharply from a combined $409 million in profit and royalties in 2021.

18 Jul 2022

Guyana Races Against the Clock to Bank Its Offshore Oil Bonanza

Liza Destiny FPSO offshore Guyana - Credit: Rolf Jonsen

For the poor, small South American country of Guyana, there's no time like the present when it comes to reaping the rewards of its offshore oil jackpot.With sky-high oil prices, a transition to renewable energy on the horizon, and 750,000 citizens desperate for better lives, Guyana is putting its foot on the gas to exploit its vast oil reserves, even if that means sacrificing some longer-term gains.Already locked into contracts with oil firms that have been criticized for being too one-sided…

14 Jul 2022

Libya's Oil Chief Rejects Sacking, Says Govt Mandate Expired

NOC chief Mustafa Sanalla - Credit: NOC (file image)

The head of Libya's National Oil Corp (NOC) on Wednesday rejected the prime minister's authority to sack him, raising the prospect of an open struggle for control of the state energy producer.In a furious televised speech, Mustafa Sanalla said Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah's mandate to govern had expired and warned him not to touch NOC.An armed force deployed outside the NOC building later in the day, three witnesses said. One of them said the force was aligned with Dbeibah.

16 Apr 2021

Clean Crude? Oil Companies use Offsets to Claim Green Barrels

Credit:fuzzy3d/AdobeStock

In January, Occidental Petroleum announced it had accomplished something no oil company had done before: It sold a shipload of crude that it said was 100% carbon-neutral.While the two-million-barrel cargo to India was destined to produce more than a million tons of planet-warming carbon over its lifecycle, from well to tailpipe, the Texas-based driller said it had completely offset that impact by purchasing carbon credits under a U.N.-sponsored program called CORSIA.Carbon credits…

24 Aug 2020

Tanker to Load 30,000 Tonnes of Condensate from Libya's Brega port

The Valle di Siviglia tanker arrived at Libya's Brega port on Monday to load 30,000 tonnes of condensate to allow for continued gas production for local power plants, the National Oil Corporation (NOC) said.Brega and other east Libyan ports have been blockaded since January by the eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) and its allies as part of a wider conflict and dispute over the distribution of oil revenue.Eastern authorities have said they will allow the export of stored condensate and oil to enable the continued production of gas used by local power stations, after shortages had led to lengthy power cuts.The NOC said the shipment of condensate would allow for gas production to continue at 160 million cubic feet (mcf) per day.However, there would still be a shortfall of around 90 mcf

11 Aug 2020

How Venezuela Lost Three Supertankers to Its Chinese Partner

A shipping joint venture between Venezuela and China has fallen apart in the wake of U.S. sanctions, resulting in the South American nation losing three supertankers at a time when foreign shippers are reluctant to carry its oil, court documents show.PetroChina Co Ltd, which had been state-run Petroleos de Venezuela’s partner in the Singapore-based joint venture CV Shipping Pte Ltd, took control of the three tankers between January and February, according the documents from a Singapore court reviewed by Reuters.The transfer of the Junin, Boyaca and Carabobo very large crude carriers (VLCC) has not been previously reported.It came after U.S.

13 Jul 2020

Libya's NOC Reinstates Force Majeure on Oil Exports. Blames UAE for Blockade

Libya's National Oil Corp (NOC) on Sunday accused the United Arab Emirates of instructing eastern forces in Libya's civil war to reimpose a blockade of oil exports after the departure of a first tanker in six months.The UAE, along with Russia and Egypt, supports the eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) of Khalifa Haftar, which on Saturday said the blockade would continue despite it having let a tanker load with oil from storage."NOC has been informed that the instructions to shut down production were given to (the LNA) by the United Arab Emirates," it said in a statement, resuming force majeure on all oil exports.There was no immediate…

16 Jun 2020

Venezuela's Oil Exports Plummet as Shipping Contracts Get Suspended

Venezuela's oil exports have fallen nearly 28% in the first half of June, on course for the lowest level in over 70 years as tanker owners and operators suspend contracts for transporting crude oil, according to documents and data on Tuesday.Shipping firms are avoiding Venezuela after the United States earlier this month blacklisted four vessels and their owners for transporting the country's crude.Several shippers have turned tankers away from Venezuela's waters in the face of increasingly aggressive U.S. efforts to isolate and oust socialist President Nicolas Maduro by throttling the oil revenue that funds his government.State oil firm PDVSA and its partners in joint ventures have exported seven cargoes of crude and fuel so far in June to long-time customers including Italy's Eni…

08 Oct 2019

Disruptions to Global Shipping Industry Explained

AdobeStock / © Kasto

Oil shipping rates are soaring following a series of sanctions on a Chinese transportation giant and limitations placed on movement of Venezuelan crude oil tankers.WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO SHIPPING RATES?The cost of chartering a supertanker to send crude oil from one country to another is rising sharply. A South Korean importer paid more than $12 million in shipping costs for one crude shipment from the U.S. Gulf Coast. This was followed by Friday's tentative charter of another crude…

12 Nov 2018

Iranian Military Ready to Protect Oil Tankers

File Image: AdobsStock / © Jose Gill

Iran's armed forces will protect Iranian oil tankers against any threats, an Iranian military official said on Monday after the United States called the ships a "floating liability" and warned ports operators not to allow them to dock.The United States resumed sanctions on Iran's oil, shipping and banking industries last Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of a 2015 international agreement curbing Iran's nuclear programme in May."Iran's armed forces...are prepared…

11 Jul 2018

Key Oil Export Terminals Reopen in Libya

Damage at Ras Lanuf terminal June 18, 2018 (Photo: NOC)

Tripoli-based National Oil Corp (NOC) said on Wednesday four export terminals were being reopened after eastern factions handed over the ports, ending a standoff that had shut down most of Libya's oil output.Production and export operations would be restored "within the next few hours", an NOC statement said, although the restart at Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, where workers were evacuated and storage tanks damaged in fighting last month, was expected to be gradual.A tanker at Hariga was due to start loading 1 million barrels of crude on Wednesday afternoon…

07 May 2018

Conoco Moves to Seize PDVSA's Caribbean Assets

U.S. oil firm ConocoPhillips has moved to take Caribbean assets of Venezuela's state-run PDVSA to enforce a $2 billion arbitration award over a decade-oil nationalization of its projects in the South American country, according to three sources familiar with its actions. The U.S. firm targeted facilities on the islands of Curacao, Bonaire and St. Eustatius that accounted for about a quarter of Venezuela's oil exports last year. The three play key roles in processing, storing and blending PDVSA's oil for export. The company received court attachments freezing assets at least two of the facilities, and could move to sell them, one of the sources said. Conoco's legal maneuvers could further impair PDVSA's declining oil revenue and the country's convulsing economy.

28 Sep 2016

Moody's Threatens Downgrade of Maersk

Denmark-based shipping and oil company A.P. Møller-Mærsk A/S (Maersk)'s decision to split the group into two parts now get the credit rating agency for questioning to the light blue conglomerate's debt. It ends "probably" with a downgrade, because large parts of the oil revenue will no longer contribute to upholster transport division. "We have placed the ratings of Maersk on review for downgrade because we believe that its business diversification will reduce significantly with the separation of its energy businesses which represented 62% of EBITDA as of the first half of 2016," says Maria Maslovsky, a Moody's Vice President-Senior Analyst and lead analyst for Maersk.

18 Aug 2016

First Oil from TEN Fields off Ghana

Photo: MODEC

Ghana began pumping crude from a second offshore field operated by British company Tullow Oil on Thursday, hoping the additional revenue will boost its flagging economy. The Tweneboa, Enyenra and Ntomme (TEN) field expects to average around 23,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2016, eventually reaching 80,000 bpd along with associated gas to be harnessed to ease a domestic power deficit. President John Dramani Mahama opened the valves on the $1 billion Floating Production, Storage and Offloading vessel, the Prof John Evans Atta Mills, named after Ghana's former president who died in 2012.

11 Feb 2016

APM Terminals Broaden Portfolio, Business Model

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.

05 Aug 2015

Nigeria's Tanker Ban Underscores Local Industry Disarray

The Nigerian president's sudden, unexpected and seemingly unilateral decision to ban nearly 100 oil tankers from the country's waters has sown confusion in the operations of Africa's largest crude exporter. The edict directly from President Muhammadu Buhari's office appeared to be part of a campaign pledge to crack down on oil industry corruption and theft. But the disarray it has caused, even three weeks on, underscores the problems Buhari faces in trying, as an oil industry outsider, to tackle problems in the sector head on. "It's a mess," one trader said of the ban. Buhari has kept the oil portfolio for himself for now, and said that he would not appoint ministers until September.

12 Mar 2015

Ghana Slashes 2015 Oil Revenue Forecast by 64%

Ghana's finance minister said on Thursday that the forecast for oil revenues in 2015 had been slashed to 1.5 billion cedis ($416.7 million), down from 4.2 billion cedis forecast in the budget presented in November due to falling oil prices.   Finance Minister Seth Terkper told parliament the government had based its original revenue forecast on oil prices averaging $99.4 per barrel this year but was now using an IMF projection of oil at $52.8 per barrel.   Terkper also said that the oil production forecast for 2015 remained unchanged at 102,033 barrels per day.     ($1=3.60 cedis) (Reporting by Kwasi Kpodo; Writing by David Lewis; Editing by Daniel Flynn)

10 Feb 2015

Iran Fuel Oil Revenue Up 30 pct

Iran has earned $1.35 billion for selling more than 3 million tonnes of fuel oil in the 10 months to Jan. 21, up 30 percent in revenue from the same period of last year, oil ministry news website Shana cited an official as saying. The OPEC member also earned $963 million in gasoil revenue during the same period, a 30 percent increase from last year, and sold 107,000 tonnes of heating oil, Shana cited Mohammadreza Mazloumi, manager of the commercial division at National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC) as saying. Iran has a target to sell 4 million tonnes of fuel oil and gasoil during the current Iranian year to March 20, 2015, he added. The Iranian year started on March 21, 2014. U.S.

27 Jan 2015

Tanker with Kurdish Crude Leaving U.S. After 6-month Dispute

After being stuck in legal limbo for six months, a tanker loaded with 1 million barrels of Kurdish crude headed east on Tuesday to leave U.S. waters after Baghdad and the Kurds reached a deal to share oil revenue. The United Kalavrvta tanker, which had been anchored in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico since July, was headed across the Atlantic to Gibraltar, said the vessel's operator, Marine Management Services, based in Greece. It added that is has not received any orders to discharge the cargo. Last week, motions filed in a Houston court by lawyers for Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government showed the vessel would soon have to move to another destination in order to pass special surveys designed to maintain its class certification.

23 Oct 2014

US Warns of Sanctions on Buyers of Islamic State Oil

The Obama administration on Thursday threatened to slap sanctions on anyone buying oil from Islamic State militants in an effort to disrupt what it said was a $1-million-a-day funding source. Islamic State has seized large swaths of Iraq and Syria in a brutal campaign, and could pose a threat to the United States and its allies if it is not stopped, U.S. Treasury Undersecretary David Cohen said. "With the important exception of some state-sponsored terrorist organizations, ISIL is probably the best-funded terrorist organization we have confronted," Cohen said, referring to another name for Islamic State. He spoke at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

09 Sep 2014

South Africa Wants to Resume Iran Oil Imports

South Africa wants to resume oil imports from Iran, once its biggest supplier, and hopes to resolve "sanction issues" that have blocked purchases within the next three months, its deputy foreign minister said on Tuesday. South Africa bought around 68,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) from Iran in May 2012, a month before it halted crude purchases as Western countries pressured Tehran over its nuclear programme. That was well down from peak purchases in 2011. Africa's second biggest crude consumer imports around 380,000 bpd, with Saudi Arabia overtaking Iran as its biggest supplier in 2012 when Western sanctions increased. Nigeria, Angola and Ghana also sell South Africa oil.

21 Aug 2014

DNO Eyes First Kurdistan Crude Shipment

Norwegian firm DNO expects its first shipment of oil from Kurdistan to be sold on the international market by the end of the year and said it was committed to its operations in the region despite the recent flare-up in violence. The firm could until recently only sell oil on the local Iraqi market, at lower prices than it would have got on the international oil market, due to a long constitutional fight between the region and Baghdad over independent oil sales. That changed earlier this month when the Kurdish Regional Government allowed oil firms to seek out international buyers. Oil revenue is a lifeline for the KRG, whose peshmerga fighters are fighting Islamic State militants.