Venezuela Slams Deployment of British Warship to Guyana
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday said the deployment of a British warship to waters off the coast of Guyana breaches the "spirit" of an agreement reached between Venezuelan and Guyanese authorities.Guyana and Venezuela agreed earlier this month to avoid the use of force and avoid increasing tensions in the long border dispute over the oil-rich Essequibo territory.The 160,000-square-km (62,000-square-mile) Essequibo region is generally recognized as part of Guyana…
Peru to Cut O&G Royalties to Counter Price Slump
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.
Angola: Tender for 12 Offshore Oil Blocks
Angolan state oil company Sonangol plans to launch a tender for licences to explore 12 new offshore oil blocks in 2015, state news agency Angop cited Oil Minister Jose Botelho de Vasconcelos as saying on Friday. Seven of the new blocks will be located in the Namibe Basin and the remaining five in the Lower Congo Basin, a Sonangol spokesman told Reuters. Angola is Africa's biggest oil producer after Nigeria, with international majors such as France's Total, Italy's ENI, Britain's BP, and U.S. firms Chevron and Exxon Mobil among the main operators in the country. Angop cited Vasconcelos, who was speaking at an oil conference in Moscow, as reiterating Angola's goal of ramping up production to 2 million barrels per day (mbpd) by 2015, from an average of 1.73 mbpd last year.
Promotion Launched for Yemen Offshore Blocks
Oil is the key corner of the development process of Yemeni economy. The Ministry of Oil and Minerals headed by the Minister Khalid M. Bahah and the Petroleum Exploration Production Authority (PEPA) have launched a massive campaign promoting Yemens offshore oil blocks. Recently, the Ministry held a promotional conference to highlight the features of investing in Yemen and to call on investors to place their bids for the new 11 Offshore Oil blocks that are up for grabs. The blocks are located in the Red Sea, blocks 55, 22 and 23; Gulf of Aden, blocks 46, 61, 62 and 63 and Socotra basin, blocks 93, 94, 95, and 96. The conference was a success with more than 40 big oil firms attending including Shell, British Petroleum, Exxon Mobil, Oxy, Nexen, Oil Search and CCC.
Cuba Offers 59 Offshore Oil Blocks In Joint Venture
The Cuban government is reportedly offering 59 offshore oil blocks for joint venture projects with foreign companies as part of its bid to develop the local hydrocarbon industry and remedy national fuel shortages.
