Oil Executives News

The U.S. government is not planning a systematic easing of sanctions on Venezuela after an initial round allowed partners of state-run oil firm PDVSA to resume taking oil for past debts, a State Department official said.In November, Washington issued a six-month license allowing Chevron Corp. to expand operations and export Venezuelan oil to the United States. Eni and Repsol also began taking Venezuelan crude for debt with U.S. approvals, This year, Trinidad and Tobago received a U.S. nod to jointly development an offshore natural gas field with Venezuela. Those moves by U.S.

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…

Last July 6, Major General Manuel Quevedo joined his wife, a Catholic priest and a gathering of oil workers in prayer in a conference room at the headquarters of Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA.The career military officer, who for the past year has been boss at the troubled state-owned oil company, was at no ordinary mass. The gathering, rather, was a ceremony at which he and other senior oil ministry officials asked God to boost oil output."This place of peace and spirituality…

Matrix plans sweet crude storage futures at LOOP. Matrix Global Holdings is planning to start up an oil storage futures contract for low-sulphur crude oil that will enable companies to build up supplies for export cargoes, as Asia looks for more crude imports from the United States. The contract will give holders access to low-sulphur, or sweet, crude oil storage space at the Clovelly, Louisiana, terminal operated the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP). The contract is expected to start up in about six months, Richard Redoglia, Matrix's chief executive officer told Reuters. Matrix currently hosts a monthly auction for crude storage at the LOOP and it offers a high-sulphur, or sour, crude oil storage futures contract through the CME Group with delivery at the Offshore Port.

Crude oil exports from southern Iraq in January fell to 3.275 million barrels per day (bpd) from 3.51 million bpd in December, as the country complied with an agreement with other producers to reduce output, two oil executives said on Tuesday. December's exports from the southern region, where Iraq produces most of its oil, set a record high. Iraq is OPEC's second-largest crude producer after Saudi Arabia. The group agreed in late November to cut production in order to support sagging oil prices. (Reporting by Aref Mohammed; writing by Maher Chmaytelli)

Two years after Iran pledged to open up its oil industry in anticipation of the lifting of sanctions, foreign companies say they still have little information about Iranian oil fields and contract terms, hindering investment decisions. Bosses from oil majors including BP, Total, Eni, Royal Dutch Shell and LUKOIL have all travelled to Tehran this year, since the EU sanctions ended in January. Their teams spent weeks meeting local officials ahead of investment tenders due to start next month. But several senior executives and members of their negotiating teams told Reuters they still had not been given sufficient information about the geology of Iranian fields or contract terms.

The Philippines, eager to resume development of vital oil and gas reserves off its coast, will likely need to reach an accord with a Chinese government infuriated by last week's ruling that granted Manila a big victory in the South China Sea. The Philippines relies overwhelmingly on imports to fuel its fast-growing economy. That reliance will grow further in a few years when the main source of domestic natural gas runs out, so the clock is ticking for it to develop offshore fields that China shows no sign of loosening its grip on. Beijing has refused to recognise the ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration that granted the Philippines sovereign rights to access offshore oil and gas fields, including the Reed Bank, a shallow tablemount some 85 nautical miles off its coast.

U.S. energy firms this week added rigs drilling for oil for the second time this year, energy services company Baker Hughes Inc said on Friday, after crude prices briefly tested a seven-month high over $50 a barrel over the past two weeks. That was a key price level that analysts and producers had said would likely trigger a return to the well pad. Drillers added 9 oil rigs in the week to June 3, bringing the total rig count up to 325, compared with 642 a year ago, Baker Hughes said in its closely followed report. The new rigs were scattered across many basins and states with the Permian in West Texas and New Mexico gaining five, while Alaska and Texas gained three each. Prior to this week, energy companies added only one rig so far this year, during the week of March 18.

Private jet collided with snow plow during takeoff; Total's CEO a defender of Moscow policies. Insiders Boisseau and Pouyanne long seen as potential successors. The chief executive of French oil major Total, Christophe de Margerie, was killed when his private jet collided with a snow plough as it was taking off from Moscow's Vnukovo airport on Monday night. De Margerie's death leaves a void at the top of one of the world's biggest listed oil firms at a difficult time for the industry as oil prices fall and state-backed competitors keep them out of some of the best oil exploration territory. The collision occurred minutes before midnight Moscow time as de Margerie's Dassault Falcon jet was taking off for Paris.

On the 50th anniversary of the issuing of the first licenses for the extraction of oil and gas from the UK continental shelf (UKCS), Lloyd’s Register asked oil executives what their main concerns were in an increasingly challenging period in the sector’s turbulent history. The consensus was that the industry needs to learn to collaborate if it is to survive these challenges. Production from assets fell by 38 per cent between 2010 and 2013, equating to a drop of around 500 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) and a drop in tax receipts of approximately £6 billion. In exploration, just 15 wells were drilled on the UKCS last year, compared to 44 in 2008, while operating expenditure rose to a record level of £8.9 billion, and is expected to increase further to about £9.6 billion this year.

According to a Financial Times report, top oil executives recently rejected allegations by some lawmakers that the oil industry was making record profits at the expense of US consumers, emphasizing the high level of investment the companies make to ensure supply and the limitations that have been set by Washington on oil exploration and development within the US. ExxonMobil executives met with lawmakers at a rare joint hearing of the energy and commerce committees. According to the report, the company recognizes that rises in energy prices have put a strain on US household budgets, but emphasizes that there are no quick fixes to rising energy needs and that US consumers should recognize their position in a global market. Source: The Financial Times