Oil Industry Sources News

Russia is concerned about a build-up of oil tankers in the Bosphorus Strait and is discussing the issue with insurance and transport companies, RIA cited Russian deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko as saying on Wednesday.At least 20 oil tankers queuing off Turkey face more delays to cross from Russia's Black Sea ports to the Mediterranean as operators race to adhere to new Turkish insurance rules added ahead of Europe's ship insurance ban and a G7 price cap on Russian oil…

At least three people died in Nigeria when the oil storage and production vessel, FPSO Trinity Spirit, exploded last week and four crew are still missing, the operating company said on Monday.The vessel had 10 crew on board when it exploded on Wednesday, Nigeria's Shebah Exploration & Production Company Ltd (SEPCOL) said, adding that three were found dead on Sunday after three people had been found alive last week."Our priority remains focused towards establishing the whereabouts…

Iranian oil exports have risen sharply in September in defiance of U.S. sanctions, three assessments based on tanker tracking showed, throwing a lifeline to the Islamic Republic and its collapsing economy.Exports have shrunk from over 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd) since the United States withdrew from a nuclear deal with Iran and reimposed sanctions in 2018. Still, Iran has been working to get around the measures and keep exports flowing.Data from TankerTrackers and two other firms indicated exports are rising in September…

Supertanker freight rates are on the rise for a second time this month as producers, refiners and traders scramble to secure ships to transport crude or store a fast-growing global glut of oil, industry sources said.Freight rates for very large crude-oil carriers (VLCC) along the Middle East Gulf to China route were assessed at about $180,000 a day on Monday, up from some $125,000 on Friday and a weekly low of about $90,000 a day on Wednesday, according to several ship broking sources.Its difficult to say whether or not the rates will be sustained…

An attack on a Saudi tanker by Yemen's Houthis will not hit oil supplies, Saudi Arabia's energy minister said on Wednesday, after the Iran-allied group said it had targeted a warship in response to an air strike that killed civilians. The Western-backed, Saudi-led coalition which includes other Sunni Muslim states says the Houthis attacked the oil tanker off Yemen's main port of Hodeidah on Tuesday. The Houthis, however, say they targeted a coalition warship in response to an air strike on Hodeidah on Monday that killed at least a dozen civilians, including seven children.

The 24 fishing boats rusting in the harbour of Mozambique's capital were meant to be a modern tuna fleet that would rake in hard currency, create jobs and provide a cheap source of protein for one of the world's poorest countries. Instead, they have become monuments to government mismanagement and heavy lending by Western banks that have buried a promising African economy in a deep debt crisis. The boats, moored in the harbour of Maputo, were paid for out of an $850-million loan arranged in 2013 by Credit Suisse and Russia's VTB to finance "fishing infrastructure". The cash came in the form of a government-backed bond to state tuna-fishing company Ematum.

One of the U.S. Senate's top advocates for lifting the ban on domestic crude exports urged the Commerce Department on Thursday to disclose whether any oil swaps with Mexico have actually been finalized after the agency approved the transactions in August. Administration officials told Reuters in August that the Commerce Department was "acting favorably on a number of applications" to export U.S. crude in exchange for imported oil from Mexico, in a step seen as loosening the ban on most crude oil exports.

China's biggest oil and gas company China National Petroleum Corp.(CNPC ) has expressed interested in  a terminal in Kyaukphyu in Myanmar  to receive imported Liquefied natural gas (LNG). China National Petroleum Corporation has proposed developing a terminal in Kyaukphyu to receive imported LNG, local media quoted an official from state-owned Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise. He said that companies from China, Korea, Japan, Norway, Singapore and Thailand have already proposed investment into LNG development projects in Myanmar, and feasibility studies have been completed. The Myanmar-China natural gas pipeline, which begins at Kyaukphyu in Rakhine State, began full operations in late 2013.

Southern exports average almost 2.60 million bpd; Exports close to record rate seen in May. Lack of Kirkuk northern exports limits overall supply. Iraq's oil exports from its southern terminals on the Gulf, far from the fighting in its north, have increased so far this month as bad weather and logistical delays subsided, approaching a record high reached in May. Three months after an advance by Islamic State into northern Iraq sent oil prices soaring to $115 a barrel, the fighting has not reduced Iraq's exports from the south, the main outlet for its crude to world markets. Exports from Iraq's southern terminals have averaged 2.58 million barrels per day (bpd), according to shipping data for the first 23 days of September tracked by Reuters.

Reuters reported that an oil tanker burst into flames at Nigeria's Port Harcourt on Friday after two loud explosions were heard, oil industry sources said. The tanker was berthed in a general cargo area, not at an oil exporting terminal, and crude exports from the world's eighth largest oil exporter were not affected, the sources said. Port Harcourt is several miles from Nigeria's largest oil and gas export complex on Bonny Island. Source: Reuters

Four European oil firms are reportedly negotiating with Cuba to carry out deep-water exploration of the island's Gulf of Mexico waters, and at least two are likely to sign contracts early next year, Cuban oil officials were reported as saying. In a separate development, Brazil's state oil firm Petrobras had also started drilling an exploration well in north-central Cuban coastal waters whose results will be announced in January or February. The exploration efforts formed part of a strategic program by Cuba's communist government to boost domestic oil and gas production and so reduce costly oil imports, whose high prices this year have badly strained Havana's stretched finances. Dr.