Time Oil News

Supply disruptions in the Middle East on top of an already tight crude market could send oil prices violently upward, said the energy research firm Rystad Energy.Two Saudi Arabian oil tankers were reportedly attacked off the coast of the United Arab Emirates this weekend, sending crude futures up sharply May 13.Bjørnar Tonhaugen, Head of Oil Market Research at Rystad Energy, says: “In the short term, the perceived risk of supply disruptions from the area will only add to the premium of short-dated oil contracts compared to deferred contracts on the futures curve, which are already trading at a high premium.”The tightness in prompt supplies is caused by declines in production from Iran and Venezuela…

U.S. President Donald Trump has warned OPEC not to tighten the oil market too much and risk another spike in prices that could harm the global economy – and his re-election campaign in 2020.“Oil prices getting too high,” the president warned in a message posted on Twitter on Monday. “OPEC please relax and take it easy. World cannot take a price hike – fragile!”The president has kept up a regular commentary on oil prices over the last year and has pressed Saudi Arabia, de facto leader of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries…

Iran's Director of Ports and Maritime Affairs of Abada, Reza Safari,  announced a 47% increase in exports from Abadan, Arvandkenar and Chouebdeh Ports.During the last 10 months of this year, exports of goods and commodities from Abadan ports has increased by 47%, Reza said.The export volume of goods and commodities in the last 10 months of this year was 27 thousand 735 tons more than in the same period last year.Agricultural products, household appliances and light products, meat and meat products are among the most exported items from the three ports of Abadan, Arvandkenar and Chouebdeh. The destinations of exports from ports of Abadan are Gulf countries including Iraq and Kuwait.Meanwhile…

U.S. import prices fell in February for an eighth straight month, weighed down by declining costs for petroleum and a range of other goods, but the pace of decline is slowing as the dollar's rally fades and oil prices stabilize. The Labor Department said on Friday import prices slipped 0.3 percent last month after a 1.0 percent decrease in January. Import prices have decreased in 18 of the last 20 months, reflecting a robust dollar and plunging oil prices. They were down 6.1 percent in the 12 months through February, the smallest year-on-year drop since December 2014.

Record high freight rates are creating more headaches for traders looking to house millions of barrels of unsold crude oil and who already face potential losses due to record high stocks. They have to decide on whether to use tankers for longer term storage until they can sell their cargoes, or dump them at even more discounted prices in order to keep wells running. This is expected to come at a bigger cost as rates for supertankers have soared - reaching their highest since 2008 at over $100,000 a day last month and currently around $70,000 a day. Some have already been caught out with extra oil, and had no choice but to keep it on vessels. Trade sources said the expensive freight meant this was not a money-making play - and is unlikely to become one any time soon.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has been granted access to real-time oil export information for the first time, allowing it to improve weekly estimates of fuel demand at a time of intensifying scrutiny of energy data. The change is likely to be welcomed by oil traders who routinely scrutinize the EIA's reports for clues on what is happening in the world's biggest oil consumer, who have long rued the agency's dependence on calculated figures. The appetite for reliable data has taken on added urgency as refined fuel exports doubled since 2010 to about 4 million barrels per day. Every week, the EIA publishes a Petroleum Status Report that includes data on inventories and refinery operations collected directly from energy firms.

Despite industry gloom about the offshore market, orders for production floaters continue to flow. Over the past few weeks a speculatively-ordered FLNG found use off Africa, negotiations began to convert a third LNG carrier to an FLNG, an FSRU was ordered and a modified LNG tanker has been leased for storage use. Looking forward, we are tracking 30 projects considered likely to generate contracts for floating production units over the next 18 months. Among the likely awards are 18 FPSOs, 2 production semis, 5 LNG liquefaction or regasification units and 5 FSOs.

Shipping owner Alfred Hartmann is the new President of the Association of German Shipowners (VDR). For the first time a mid-size company owner is at the helm of the VDR, and this 68 year-old wants to bring the German shipping industry back on course. He discussed his plan with MR. A few years ago, you said during an interview that with some luck the shipping industry could overcome its current crisis and begin an upward trend. But the industry has not recovered. What went wrong? The consequences of the financial crisis in 2008 have been heavy.

The Obama administration on Tuesday proposed allowing for the first time oil and gas exploration in a wide swath of U.S. waters off the Atlantic Coast. The 2017 to 2022 drilling plan begins a process that could take many years before waters off the coasts of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina or Georgia are cleared for drilling. It expands on the last five-year plan initially issued in 2010 that allowed drilling off Virginia. The administration canceled a lease sale there after BP Plc's deadly explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that year. The plan includes a potential lease sale in the Atlantic around 2021 but it could be withdrawn if scientists discover that the area is too fragile.

Oil and gas operators may be sitting on new investment decisions until the future of the North Sea becomes clearer, according to the latest report from business advisory firm Deloitte. The report, which details drilling, licensing and deal activity across North West Europe over the third quarter of 2014 and was ompiled by Deloitte’s Petroleum Services Group (PSG), found that four deals were announced offshore UK. This is slightly down in the five transactions reported in Q2 2014 and substantially lower than the 14 registered during Q3 2013. Derek Henderson, senior partner in Deloitte’s Aberdeen office, said the drop in deals may be down to North Sea operators continuing to wait for further clarity about the future of the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS).

The demand for effective solutions to monitor hydraulic and lubricant systems is constantly increasing. Oil condition – or the result of the natural aging of the substance, decomposition of additives and contamination by foreign particles – is therefore the significant factor in determining the optimal point in time for an oil change. Changing the fluid too early generates unnecessary costs; changing it too late increases wear within the system and can lead to component failures and therefore even higher costs.

Offshore exploration is a history of man v. Prospecting for oil is a dynamic art. From a lake in Ohio, to piers off the California coast in the early 1900s, to the salt marshes of Louisiana in the 1930s, to the first “out-of-sight- of-land” tower in 1947 in the Gulf of Mexico, the modern offshore petroleum industry has inched its way over the last roughly 75 years from 100 ft. of water ever farther into the briny deep, where the biggest platform today, Shell’s Perdido spar, sits in 8,000 ft. of water. As a planet, we have two unquenchable thirsts – for water and for oil.

Dr. Jason Jolliff is an oceanographer with the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). "The emphasis here," he says, "is on developing models of the ocean environment to help the naval warfighter." His most recent paper, published in Ocean Modeling (March 2014), shows NRL can also forecast where oil will go following a major spill. "If you're going to do forecasting," he says, "you have to get the ocean circulation correct. It's fundamental to all else." Jolliff plugged the distribution…

Aker Solutions ASA publish their third-quarter results 2013 showing a fairly even performance in the group's sectors, but in subsea widening its profit margin to 10.9 percent from 8.7 percent a year earlier. Sales were NOK 10.9 billion in the third quarter of 2013, compared with NOK 11.2 in the third quarter of 2012. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) amounted to NOK 1.07 billion in the quarter, compared with NOK 1.12 billion in the year-earlier period. The EBITDA margin was 9.8 percent in the quarter, compared with 10.1 percent a year earlier.

Aker Solutions generated revenue of NOK 11.9 billion in the second quarter of 2013, compared with NOK 11.9 billion in the second quarter of 2012. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) amounted to NOK 946 million in the quarter, compared with NOK 1.36 billion in the year-earlier period. The EBITDA margin was 7.9 percent in the quarter, compared with 11.4 percent a year earlier. Earnings per share (EPS) were NOK 0.44 in the quarter, down from NOK 2.50 a year earlier. The order intake was NOK 10.9 billion in the quarter, compared with NOK 12 billion a year earlier. The prior-year figure excludes a Category B rig contract of NOK 11 billion that was cancelled in June. The order backlog was NOK 59.8 billion at the end of the quarter.

North America is at the forefront of a game-changing transformation in oil and gas production claims International Energy Agency publication. This year’s World Energy Outlook published by IEA finds that the extraordinary growth in oil and natural gas output in the United States will mean a sea-change in global energy flows. In the New Policies Scenario, the WEO’s central scenario, the United States becomes a net exporter of natural gas by 2020 and is almost self-sufficient in energy, in net terms, by 2035. North America emerges as a net oil exporter, accelerating the switch in direction of international oil trade, with almost 90% of Middle Eastern oil exports being drawn to Asia by 2035.

ClassNK Chairman and President, Noboru Ueda, served as Chairman of the Council of the International Association of Classification Societies from July 2010 until June 2011. In so doing, he became the fourth ClassNK chairman to complete a term at the head of IACS since the association was founded in 1968. Noboru Ueda set three important goals for his tenure at the helm of IACS - to complete the transition to a more transparent and robust IACS structure and restate IACS commitment to the European Commission…

Bloomberg reported that Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil's state- controlled oil company, opened a new exploration frontier with the discovery of oil beneath more than two kilometers of ocean and two kilometers of rock a company official said. While Petrobras doesn't know the extent or size of the oil deposits found about 250 kilometers off the shore of Rio de Janeiro, it is the first time oil has been found under such conditions, offering the chance that Petrobras may increase the production of light crude oil faster than expected, Gabrielli said in an interview. The discovery may be as large as the Campos Basin, Brazil's largest offshore district, said Haroldo Lima, head of Brazil's national petroleum agency, or ANP, in an interview.

Aker Maritime ASA's parent company, Aker RGI, has halted plans announced earlier in the year to sell the company. Aker RGI, which holds 63 percent of Aker Maritime, said earlier this year that it was in talks to merge or form an alliance for the company. "The process linked to a possible sale of Aker RGI's shares in Aker Maritime is now ended," a spokesman for Aker Maritime said. He added that Aker is continuing to develop strategy to both improve operations and find a good industrial solution, which could include moving into oil and gas production on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS). Norway's offshore industry has been hit by a downturn in investment in oil and gas projects following a plunge in oil prices last year.