Light Oil News

Esgian reports that drilling contracts have been announced this week for operations in Brazil and the Philippines, and new discoveries have been confirmed in the UK and Namibia in its Week 11 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.ContractsCOSL Drilling has emerged as the winner for Petrobras' moored semisubmersible tender with the 4,600-ft Nanhai 8 (also known as Nan Hai Ba Hao).Noble has secured a high-dayrate drillship contract with Prime Energy in the Philippines.Drilling Activity and…

Russian energy company Novatek said on Sunday it had been forced to suspend some operations at a huge Baltic Sea fuel export terminal due to a fire started by what Ukrainian media said was a drone attack.The giant Ust-Luga complex, located on the Gulf of Finland about 170 km (110 miles) west of St. Petersburg, is used to ship oil and gas products to international markets. It processes stable gas condensate - a type of light oil - into light and heavy naphtha, kerosene and diesel to be shipped by sea.It was not clear how long the disruption would last…

Russia's seaborne oil exports from Primorsk, Ust-Luga and Novorossiisk hit 4-year record of 2.4 million barrels per day (bpd) in May as domestic refineries maintenance season freed up extra barrels, Refinitiv Eikon data showed on Monday.Russia's oil exports have been growing steadily over the last couple of months even though the state pledged additional cuts in line with OPEC+ members. Saudi Arabia has recently announced a deep cut to its output in July on top of a broader OPEC+ deal.Russian refineries cut runs in May amid major seasonal maintenance on most plants…

Toyota Tsusho and subsidiary Toyotsu Energy have launched Japan's first continuous, commercial supply of biodiesel blended fuel at the Port of Nagoya.Toyotsu Energy is supplying Toyofuji Shipping's car carrier Toyofuji Maru after earlier conducting ship-to-ship bunkering trials.Toyota Tsusho, in cooperation with Daiseki Eco. Solution, is procuring waste cooking oil collected from the employee cafeterias and other facilities of Toyota Group and Toyota Tsusho Group companies, which…

Iranian oil exports hit new highs in the last two months of 2022 and are making a strong start to 2023 despite U.S. sanctions, according to companies that track the flows, on higher shipments to China and Venezuela.Tehran's oil exports have been limited since former U.S. President Donald Trump in 2018 exited a 2015 nuclear accord and reimposed sanctions aimed at curbing oil exports and the associated revenue to Iran's government.Exports have risen during the term of his successor President Joe Biden, who had sought to revive the nuclear deal, and hit the highest since 2019 on some estimates.

An Iranian supertanker carrying about 2 million barrels of condensate this week began discharging at Venezuelan state-run oil company PDVSA's main oil port, according to a company document and tanker tracking services.PDVSA and state-run National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) in the second half of last year started a swap deal to exchange Iranian condensate for PDVSA's heavy crude. The pact has proven to be key for sustaining Venezuela's oil output, which needs diluents including condensate for transportation and exports.Last year, the two state companies that are under U.S. sanctions exchanged some 4.82 million barrels of condensate for 5.55 million barrels of heavy crude, mostly transported in Iran-flagged vessels.

Russia's Urals oil export loading plan from Baltic ports in January has been revised upwards by 0.1 million tonnes to 6.2 million tonnes, traders said on Tuesday.Oil giant Rosneft added an additional cargo for loading from Primorsk Jan. 24-25, traders said. The cargo was allocated to Glencore, they added.Primorsk oil exports in January have been increased to 3.8 million tonnes, traders said.

Russia's oil exports and transit from its western seaborne outlets were set at 6.17 million tonnes in September compared to 6.29 million tonnes in the revised August plan, the preliminary schedule seen by Reuters showed on Wednesday.On a daily basis combined oil loadings from Primorsk, Ust-Luga and Novorossiisk ports will rise by 1% in September from August, Reuters calculations showed.Urals oil exports from Primorsk and Ust-Luga will decline by 1% to 4.5 million tonnes from 4.7 million tonnes in August, according to the plan.Russian Urals and Siberian Light oil exports from Black Sea Novoross

Total has made a hydrocarbon discovery at the Isabella exploration well in the UK Central North Sea, Neptune Energy, Total's partner in the project has informed.Neptune Energy has described Isabella as "an encouraging hydrocarbon discovery" which encountered hydrocarbons in Upper Jurassic and Triassic sandstone reservoirs, with 64 meters net pay encountered, consisting of lean gas and condensate and high-quality light oil."The results of the well will be analyzed to further evaluate the discovery, determine future appraisal activity and recoverable resources estimates.

Pirates have kidnapped 19 crew members from a crude oil tanker off Nigeria in an area where acts of piracy are on the rise, an official with the ship's operator said on Thursday.The loaded vessel, the Nave Constellation, was attacked 77 nautical miles off Bonny Island on Tuesday and 18 Indians and one Turk from the crew were seized, the official said.Seven other crew members remain on board the vessel. Neither the vessel nor the cargo were damaged, the official said.The shipping…

Hydraulic fracturing operations in the Permian shattered old records in June. The prolific shale basin in Texas and parts of New Mexico in the US has reached new heights in terms of the number of fracked wells – both on a daily basis and in terms of absolute monthly wells. Rystad Energy estimates there were as many as 18 wells fracked per day across the entire Permian Basin, or almost 550 wells during the month of June. Previously, fracking in the Permian peaked at approximately 520 wells fracked in August 2018, while the peak daily rate was reached in February earlier this year.“The Midland platform has undoubtedly been the driver of this upwards trend with consistent month-over-month increases…

United States will soon export more oil and liquids than Saudi Arabia, thanks to the continued rise in oil production from US shale plays and the increased oil export capacity from the Gulf Coast.According to Rystad Energy, energy research and business intelligence company, it is a a pivotal geopolitical shift. The US has for decades relied on large-scale imports to satisfy its thirst for oil, but this is about to change.The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported last week that the United States exported more crude and petroleum products than it imported. Granted, the EIA followed up with a report this week that US crude oil stocks had risen by 7.1 million barrels in a week…

Private investment firm Auxo Investment Partners said it is partnering with the Andrie family with an investment in Andrie LLC, a Michigan-based Jones Act bulk transporter of specialty products including liquid asphalt, cement, light oil petroleum products, and calcium chloride throughout the Great Lakes. The deal, terms of which were not disclosed, marks Auxo’s sixth acquisition in 16 months, and builds on the firm’s December 2017 acquisition of M/G Transport Services, a leading dry-bulk transportation and logistics company based in New Orleans.Andrie, founded in 1988, is a company serving the Great Lakes, working extensively with large global customers.

Deal builds on Auxo’s December 2017 acquisition of leading dry-bulk transportation and logistics company, M/G Transport Services. Private investment firm Auxo Investment Partners announced today that it is partnering with the Andrie family with an investment in Andrie LLC, a Michigan-based Jones Act bulk transporter of specialty products including liquid asphalt, cement, light oil petroleum products, and calcium chloride throughout the Great Lakes. The deal, terms of which were not disclosed…

Norway has been forced to close the Sture Oil Terminal near Bergen and has started closing down the nearby Kollsness gas-and-condensate terminal — a lifeline of heating gas to Europe — after an early morning collision between a $440-million frigate and an oil tanker.The frigate Helge Ingstad, now listing heavily to its port side, is loaded with torpedoes and weapons systems said to be unstable as a result of the collision. Eight navy personnel are said to be injured, including two flown to regional hospital…

Two tankers carrying Iranian condensate, a type of ultra-light oil, have been floating off the United Arab Emirates for about a month as demand for the oil fell ahead of U.S. sanctions.The tankers, carrying about 2.4 million barrels of South Pars condensate combined, have been floating off the UAE since August after South Korea halted imports from Iran while China's demand dropped during summer, according to several industry sources and shipping data.The build-up in Iranian oil supplies underscores the pressure that Iran is facing as Washington aims to bring Iranian oil exports down to zero to force Tehran to re-negotiate a nuclear deal.The Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) Felicity loaded condensate at Iran's Assaluyeh port in early August and then set ail for Jebel Ali in the UAE…

NYK and Nippon Yuka Kogyo Co., Ltd., an NYK Group company, have teamed with Horiba Ltd. to develop a new sulfur-in-oil analyzer for ships. The new device is based on an existing device used at onshore analysis centers.Using this new analyzer, NYK will be able to thoroughly comply with regulations limiting sulfur oxides (SOx) from vessels, as well as optimize the company’s use of low-sulfur fuel oil.Certain areas around Europe and North America have been designated as emission control areas (ECAs) to prevent air pollution, and ships sailing though those areas are required to use onboard fuel oil having a sulfur content of no more than 0.1 percent.Therefore…

Russian exports and transit of Urals oil through Baltic Sea ports are seen at 19.15 million tonnes in the third quarter, down from 19.8 million tonnes in the second quarter, industry sources said.Exports of Russian Urals and Siberian light oil from the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk are expected to rise to 8.5 million tonnes in the third quarter from 8.1 million tonnes in the second quarter, the sources said.(Reporting by Olga Yagova; writing by Maria Tsvetkova; editing by Jason Neely)

Cleaning up marine oil spills can be a challenge as there are various types of oil spilled but only a few effective recovery methods. The three main technologies for oil spill recovery for inland and offshore waters are mechanical, insitu burning (ISB), and dispersant application. Absorbent booms and pads may also be used, but they are more effective for small fuel spills. Mechanical recovery, usually an oil skimmer, is a device that skims contained floating oil and transfers the recovered oil to a storage container or vessel.

Strong winds, high waves and toxic gases are hindering dozens of rescue boats struggling to locate missing sailors from a stricken oil tanker in the East China Sea and to extinguish a fire that has burned for the past three days on the ship. The poor conditions, with rain and waves as high as 3 metres (10 feet), frustrated efforts to tame the fire and search for the 31 remaining tanker crew members, China's Ministry of Transport said in a statement on Tuesday. The flames were forcing the South Korean Coast Guard's search and rescue team to stay as far as 3 miles (4.8 km) away from the tanker, two South Korean officials told Reuters.

A sunken Iranian oil tanker may be leaking heavy bunker fuel as well as light oil off the east coast of China and the best remedy was to recover the vessel, officials said on Friday. It was unclear how much bunker fuel was left aboard the tanker when it sank on Sunday after being ablaze for days but experts estimated it may have been carrying about 1,000 tonnes at the time of collision. "There have been multiple appearances of oil slicks of different sizes and types at the sinking spot and nearby... the slicks exceeded 200 sq kilometres (77 sq miles) on Thursday," Huo Chuanlin, of the State Oceanic Administration's Ecological Protection Department, told reporters. It was not immediately clear where the oil could wash up or the extent of the damage it could cause.

Rising U.S. shale oil production will overwhelm the nation's refining capacity, with three-quarters of the additional oil produced in the United States by 2023 shipped to Europe and Asia, according to a new study by consultancy Wood Mackenzie. The research points to the continued impact of U.S. shale on global markets and the mismatch between domestic refining capacity and rising crude output. The oil could bottleneck at U.S. Gulf Coast ports unless new infrastructure is built, researchers said. U.S. refineries will absorb between 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) and 1 million bpd of the expected 4 million bpd of additional production to emerge from U.S. oil fields, Wood Mackenzie said in a study released on Monday.

Russia plans to sharply increase fuel exports and carve out a larger share of the European market following an extensive $55 billion modernisation of its refineries, companies' plans and analysts' reports show. Russia embarked on a modernisation of its biggest refineries in 2011 following a fuel shortage crisis. It also changed its tax system to favour production of cleaner and higher-quality fuel. The modernisation, which has not been completed yet, led to a surge in output of light products and exports, which has hurt European refineries' margins.