Net Oil News

Thailand's largest energy company, state-controlled PTT, is in advanced talks with Qatar for a 15-year liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply deal, four trading sources told Reuters.The oil and gas conglomerate is negotiating a supply of 1 or 2 million tonnes per annum (mtpa), according to different figures cited by the sources, in what would be the latest in a spate of deals by Asian buyers to lock in long term supplies.A fifth industry source said that both companies are in "serious negotiations"…

The drilling of Beacon Offshore Energy's Winterfell-2 appraisal well on Block 943 in the Green Canyon area of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico has been completed with the well showing encouraging results, Kosmos Energy, a partner in the project said Tuesday.The Winterfell-2 well, where Kosmos' working interest is ~16.4%, was drilled to evaluate the adjacent fault block to the northwest of the original Winterfell discovery and was designed to test two horizons that were oil bearing in the Winterfell-1 well…

American upstream oil company founded and based in Dallas Kosmos Energy made an offshore oil discovery in Equatorial Guinea, Reuters reported quoting the Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons.The S-5 well was drilled at a total depth of 4,400 meters and encountered 39 meters of net oil play in the Santonian reservoir, in the offshore Rio Muni Basin, it said. “The discovery is a strong validation of our strategy to replace oil reserves by exploring the highly prospective oil basins like Rio Muni,” the nation’s Minister of Mines, Industry and Energy Gabriel Obiang said in the statement.According to the report, Lima’s ministry said the well was drilled at a depth of 4…

British oil major BP Alaska announced that it is selling its entire business to Hilcorp Alaska, marking the exit from Alaska after six decades.The $5.6 billion sale includes Opens a New Window. interests in the Prudhoe Bay oil field, Point Thomson gas field and the trans-Alaska pipeline system, BP said in a release.Bob Dudley, BP group chief executive, said: "Alaska has been instrumental in BP's growth and success for well over half a century and our work there has helped shape the careers of many throughout the company. We are extraordinarily proud of the world-class business we have built, working alongside our partners and the State of Alaska…

UK-based oil and gas company President Energy President Energy has encountered oil in the third and final well of its current drill programme at the Puesto Flores concession in Argentina.Well PF0 1005 has been drilled, logged, cased and cemented to 2,360 metres both on time and on budget, the company focusing primarily on high margin production opportunities in Latin America said.Both the Punta Rosada primary target and the Lotena formation secondary target resulted in good oil shows while drilling and are shown by electronic logs to be encouraging with 18 metres of net oil pay determined to be tested having good oil saturation and porosity.

UK-based independent full-cycle oil and gas company confirmed that Indico-1 well in Colombia reached target depth of 10,604 feet and encountered the Lower Sands of the Une formation.The South America focused oil and gas producer, which owns 30% non-operated working interest in the Indico-1 well, said the Lower Sands package is the same formation which holds the 120 feet oil column discovered at nearby Mariposa, which lies some 6.5 kilometres to the North West of Indico-1.The Mariposa well has produced at a stable rate of approximately 3,200 barrels of oil per day in natural flow from 10 feet of perforations near the top of the 120 feet oil column for over a year…

U.S. Gulf Coast refiners are cashing in on rising fuel demand from Mexico, shipping record volumes to a southern neighbor that has failed to expand its refining network to supply a fast-growing economy. The fuel trade could top a million barrels per day (bpd) at times in 2017 as Mexico becomes increasingly dependent on the United States for strategic energy supplies and providing business worth more than $15 billion a year to refiners such as Valero, Marathon Petroleum and Citgo Petroleum. The rise in Mexico's fuel imports reflects an economy that, after expanding for 27 quarters in a row even amid a public austerity plan, has been unable to increase its refining output to satisfy the consistent growth of its energy demand.

OPEC's full-year 2016 oil export revenues will probably fall 15 percent, down for the third straight year and possibly the lowest in more than a decade before rising in 2017, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday. Members of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), including Iran, will likely earn about $341 billion in 2016, about 15 percent below 2015 levels, based on projections of global oil prices and the group's production levels, the U.S. government's EIA said in a report. The last time OPEC's export revenues fell for three years straight was 1983-86. Early in 2016, oil prices touched 12-year lows before staging a recovery to about $50 a barrel over the last two months.

China's imports of crude oil rose 7.6 percent in April from a year ago, customs data showed on Sunday, lifted by continued strong demand from domestic private refiners. The high April inflows were a result of the strong appetite of small domestic independent "teapot" refineries. Beijing has granted licenses to more than 20 of them since last year to import crude for the first time. China imported 32.58 million tonnes of crude oil in April, data from the General Administration of Customs showed, missing a Reuters forecast. Thomson Reuters Oil Research and Forecasts had predicted that the total crude arrivals for April into China would reach 33.14 million tonnes, up from a March reading of 32.61 million tonnes.

Argentina's oil producers have shipped record volumes of crude this month, spurred by a new government subsidy that has also prompted state-owned oil company YPF to return to the export market for the first time in years. The surge in shipments abroad comes just a month after Argentina's new president, Mauricio Macri, introduced measures to help oil exporters as part of sweeping policy changes aimed at boosting investment and opening the South American nation's economy after years of heavy controls on trade. Exports are expected to reach a record 91,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude in April, including two cargoes sold by YPF to China and barrels shipped by private producers, according to a source.

Peru is reducing royalties on oil and gas production to about 5 percent on average from the current 20 percent in order to encourage exploration amid slumping prices, the government said Wednesday. The smaller take should help Peru boost interest in new oil contracts that will come up for bidding soon, said Rafael Zoeger, the president of state energy agency Perupetro. Peru has repeatedly pushed back auctioning on more than two dozen oil blocks because of a lack of interest in recent years. "I'd rather get 5 percent on some production than 20 or 30 on none," Zoeger said at a news conference. Perupetro will tailor royalties for each concession, setting a lower rate for more costly and less accessible areas, he said.

China's crude imports down 23 pct in May; OPEC oil production likely to continue to exceed demand. Oil prices slipped on Monday on news of a slide in China's fuel imports and as markets digested OPEC's decision to maintain its production target, which analysts said could prolong a supply glut for the rest of the year. China, the world's biggest net oil importer, bought nearly a quarter less crude in May than it did in the previous month, official data showed. China's imports of oil products also fell by more than 6 percent while oil product exports fell 10 percent. The Chinese data came after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed on Friday to maintain oil output at levels well above current demand…

Budget constraints are jeopardising Malaysia's defence spending plans, which include replacing ageing fighter jets and beefing up its maritime capabilities, at a time when Beijing is growing more assertive in the disputed South China Sea. While Malaysia has traditionally played down any tensions with China over the contested waterway, it has long expressed concern about piracy and security along its land and coastal borders. More recently, the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 after it flew unimpeded across the Malay Peninsula last year exposed gaps in the military's tracking of the skies. "We have a lot of areas to be concerned about.

Cairn has made a discovery of high quality oil in the second well in the Senegal exploration programme. The SNE-1 well is located in 1,100 metres (m) water depth and approximately 100 kilometres (km) offshore in the Sangomar Offshore block with a target depth of ~3,000 m and targeting the Shelf Edge Prospect. Intermediate logging of the SNE-1 well has confirmed hydrocarbons in the Cretaceous clastics objective which is of similar age to oil bearing sands found approximately 24 km away in FAN-1. As operator, Cairn has now issued Notices of Discovery for the SNE-1 well and FAN-1 well to the Government of Senegal on behalf of the Joint Venture. Further evaluation of this zone is continuing. The deeper target of karstified and fractured Lower Cretaceous shelf carbonates is yet to be reached.

Cairn together with its joint venture partners have announced that the FAN-1 exploration well, offshore Senegal, has discovered oil. The well, located in 1,427 metres (m) water depth and approximately 100 kilometres offshore in the Sangomar Deep block, has reached a Target Depth (TD) of 4,927 m and was targeting multiple stacked deepwater fans. As stated prior to the commencement of operations there are no plans for immediate well testing. Further evaluation will now be required to calibrate the well with the existing 3D seismic in order to determine future plans and optimal follow up locations to determine the extent of the discovered resource.

Tullow Oil plc announces the successful results from a series of exploration, appraisal and testing activities conducted in Blocks 10BB and 13T onshore Kenya. The Etom-1 well in Block 13T is the most northerly well drilled to date in the South Lokichar basin, 6.5 km north of the previous Agete-1 discovery. The well encountered approximately 10 metres of net oil pay, extending the proven oil basin significantly northwards. Based on this result the ongoing 550 sq km 3D seismic survey in the South Lokichar basin has been extended to cover a further 247sq km in this northern area, including several similar prospects which are scheduled to be drilled in 2015. The Weatherford 804 rig drilled the Etom-1 well to a final depth of 2,000 metres.

Operator Statoil has together with PL272 partners made a gas discovery in the Askja West prospect and an oil discovery in the Askja East prospect in the North Sea. The exploration wells  30/11-9 S and 30/11-9 A, drilled by the drilling rig Ocean Vanguard, are located between the Oseberg and Frigg fields and about 13 km southeast of the Statoil-operated Krafla/Krafla West discoveries. Main wellbore 30/11-9 S tested the Askja West prospect and proved a net gas column of 90 metres in Late and Middle Jurassic rocks.

As part of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan to create American jobs, develop domestic clean energy sources and cut carbon pollution, the Interior Department completed the nation’s second competitive lease sale for renewable energy in federal waters, garnering $1,600,000 in high bids for 112,799 acres on the Outer Continental Shelf offshore Virginia. Virginia Electric and Power Company is the provisional winner of the sale, which auctioned a Wind Energy Area approximately 23.5 nautical miles off Virginia Beach that has the potential to support 2,000 megawatts of wind generation – enough energy to power more than 700,000 homes. The sale follows a July 31 auction of 164…

Chesapeake Energy and CNOOC Limited executed an agreement whereby CNOOC International Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CNOOC Limited, will purchase a 33.3% undivided interest in Chesapeake’s 600,000 net oil and natural gas leasehold acres in the Eagle Ford Shale project in South Texas. The consideration for the sale will be $1.08 billion in cash at closing, subject to adjustment. In addition, CNOOC Limited has agreed to fund 75% of Chesapeake’s share of drilling and completion costs until an additional $1.08 billion has been paid, which Chesapeake expects to occur by year-end 2012. Closing of the transaction is anticipated in the 2010 fourth quarter.

China reached this milestone in December 2012, as its net petroleum imports surpassed those of the U.S. In a recent press release NYC-based PIRA Energy Group reports that weak reported oil demand in the U.S. reduced the commercial stock draw. In Japan, crude runs began to ease, which built crude stocks. Every year for at least the last two decades, Chinese oil demand has increased in both absolute and relative terms, that is, as a percent of world total demand. Since the price spike of 2008 and the following recession, U.S. oil demand has been declining in both absolute and relative terms, for all years except 2010. This, coupled with growing U.S. oil production, has led to a downward trend in U.S. net oil imports, while Chinese net oil imports continue to grow inexorably.

According to International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka, the 28 IEA member countries have agreed to release 60 million barrels of oil in the coming month in response to the ongoing disruption of oil supplies from Libya. This supply disruption has been underway for some time and its effect has become more pronounced as it has continued. The normal seasonal increase in refiner demand expected for this summer will exacerbate the shortfall further. Greater tightness in the oil market threatens to undermine the fragile global economic recovery. In deciding to take this collective action, IEA member countries agreed to make 2 million barrels of oil per day available from their emergency stocks over an initial period of 30 days.

As part of the Tullow-operated joint venture, Shell today confirms an oil discovery in the Guyane Maritime permit approximately 150-kilometers offshore French Guiana. The GM-ES-1 well is being drilled in a water depth of over 2,000 meters and to date has drilled to a depth of 5,711 meters. The well has encountered over 70-meters of net oil pay in two objectives. The joint venture plans to drill ahead to the planned target depth. “We are pleased with the preliminary results of this first ever deepwater well offshore French Guiana,” said Dave Lawrence, Shell's executive vice president Exploration and Commercial. “We are early in the evaluation, but the initial results are encouraging for this new play.

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.