Oil Producing Nations News

Tankers carrying nearly two months worth of Venezuelan oil output are stuck at sea as global refiners shun the nation’s crude to avoid falling foul of U.S. sanctions, according to industry sources, PDVSA documents and shipping data.Washington is tightening sanctions to cut Venezuela’s oil exports and deprive the government of socialist President Nicolas Maduro of its main source of revenue.The OPEC member’s exports are hovering near their lowest levels in more than 70 years and the economy has collapsed, but Maduro has held on - to the frustration of the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.Washington has blacklisted ships and…

Tanker shipping: sky high freight rates replaced by reality of falling global oil demandGeopolitical tensions have now eased, leaving freight rates to feel the full effects of the weak underlying market and falling demand. Tanker shipping looks set to be under pressure for the rest of the year.Demand drivers and freight ratesThe tanker shipping industry was once again caught in a whirlwind, as freight rates skyrocketed with little regard to the poor market fundamentals before the latter once again caught up with rates.

OPEC and it allies held talks on Thursday on record oil output curbs of about 15 million barrels per day (bpd) or more, roughly 15% of global supplies, to support prices hammered by the coronavirus crisis, sources involved in the discussions said.They said the plan included cuts of about 5 million bpd from producers outside the group known as OPEC+ and could be made gradually, as the group seeks to overcome resistance from the United States whose involvement they see as vital to a deal.Talks have been complicated by friction between OPEC leader Saudi Arabia and non-OPEC Russia…

PAO Sovcomflot (SCF Group), one of the world leaders in energy shipping and marine services to offshore oil and gas upstream projects, said that its gross revenue for the full year to 31 December 2017 grew by 3.4% to $1.43 billion. According to the statement, 2017 proved to be one of the worst years for the conventional tanker market in the last quarter of a century, with similar conditions experienced to those seen in 2011 and 1992. Conventional tanker freight rates fell by almost 50 per cent year-on-year, reflecting an oversupply of speculative orders following the 2015 market spike, as well as the effect of sustained production cuts by OPEC and other oil producing nations and a backwardation in the oil trade.

Pipeline shut on Dec. 11; repair work could last several weeks. Deliveries of crude oil through the Forties pipeline in the North Sea are under force majeure for the first time in decades and operator INEOS said on Thursday there was no timeline yet for repair work that could last several weeks. The 169-km pipeline, which carries around a quarter of all North Sea crude output and around a third of Britain's total offshore gas production, has been closed since Monday, following the discovery of a small crack in part of the system onshore in Scotland. Force majeure, which suspends a company's contractual obligations in the wake of situations that lie beyond its control, is common in oil-producing nations like Nigeria where unrest often disrupts output, but very rare in the North Sea.

Belgian tanker operator Euronav reported a sharp drop in core profit for the first nine months of the year as freight rates in the oil tanker sector continued to fall. Excess tonnage in the global tanker market has put pressure on freight rates, as a large wave of new deliveries this year has offset scrapping. "Freight rates remained under sustained pressure ... particularly in August as seasonally low levels of cargo and new tonnage entering the market combined to drive rates to lowest levels since 2013," Chief Executive Paddy Rodgers said in a statement.

Kjeld Åbo, Chairman of CIMAC (the International Council on Combustion Engines) Fuels Working Group and Director Customer Support, Two Stroke Marine at MAN Diesel & Turbo, has said that the IMO’s proposed 0.5 percent marine fuel sulfur content limit was not unexpected but that there were a number of practical and strategic issues that needed to be addressed if the new regulations were to be implemented successfully by 2020. This article looks at how manufacturers of marine engines are rising to the challenge of meeting the IMO’s new sulfur oxides (Sox) emissions standards.

Nigeria issued its first Forcados oil loading plan since 2016, putting the nation's June oil exports on track to hit thier highest level in at least 15 months. The plan, if realised, would return loadings by Nigeria, normally West Africa's biggest oil exporter, to levels not seen since militant attacks in the oil-rich Niger Delta first shut down Forcados exports in early 2016. It is also likely to put more downward pressure on oil prices, which are already trading more than 16 percent below the highs reached in January on the back of a persistent global excess. Last week the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries along with several other oil producing nations agreed to extend output cuts of 1.8 million bpd, but it gave Nigeria, along with Libya, another exemption.

Cuban exports of refined oil products fell about 97 percent between 2013 and 2016, according to a United Nations trade report released this week, reflecting falling supplies from its political ally Venezuela. The UN Comtrade annual report put the value of Cuban fuel exports last year at $15.4 million, compared to more than $500 million in 2013. The amounts for 2015 and 2014, when oil prices collapses, were $163.5 million and $336.8, respectively. The figures were based on import data from reporting countries, which may make them incomplete. The communist-ruled Caribbean nation does not publish oil-related export information. Cash-strapped Cuba reported its exports of goods…

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.

Cuba's chronic goods trade deficit widened by $1.5 billion in 2015 as exports fell 24 percent and imports rose 3 percent, the government said on Wednesday, in the first data showing a commodity crash has hurt the economy. The information, released on the National Statistics Office web page did not cover Cuba's large service exports. Prices for key Cuban exports such as sugar, nickel and refined oil products all tumbled last year. The Communist-run country began cutting back on its 2016 import orders last year and has been slow in making some payments to creditors and suppliers. Cuba orders much of its imports a year in advance. Cuban…

Norled Ampere, the world’s first all-electric car ferry, began service this year carrying up to 120 cars and 360 passengers across the 4.2-mile (6.8 km) Sognefjord channel that separates Norway’s villages of Lavik and Oppendal and empties into the North Atlantic’s Norwegian Sea. The 260-ft. vessel recharges its dual 450 kW/hour battery packs after each docking in less 10 minutes – faster than today’s smartphones and the turnarounds of many conventionally powered ferries. Operated by Norled…

Iran, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Nigeria and now Iraq: the crude oil market has weathered a long list of actual and threatened supply shocks with remarkable calm. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), unplanned disruptions have removed around 2.5 million barrels per day from the crude market since the start of 2011. But for most of that time, Brent, the international marker, has traded in a narrow range around $105 per barrel and daily price volatility has fallen to the lowest level for 20 years.

O3b Networks announced that the company has signed a multi-year, multi-million dollar deal with Netcom Africa, a provider of satellite and wireless broadband solutions to provide low latency, high capacity broadband connectivity to ships and offshore platforms in Nigeria utilizing O3bs Medium Earth Orbit technology. Nigeria is one of the world’s largest oil producing nations with most multinational oil and gas corporations operating in the region. Despite the availability of multiple submarine cable networks on the coast of the country, service providers have struggled to meet the unique needs of the oil and gas sector. The bandwidth will be delivered over the city of Lagos, the Niger Delta region as well as the offshore oil rigs that comprise approximately 50 platforms.

U.S. oil drillers expect weaker or flat first quarter earnings but see revenues picking up later in the year as recent high oil prices trickle down to the service sector. According to sector company executives, the recovery is set to begin in the second half of this year for most, and improve markedly in 2001 as major, independent and national oil firms ramp up oil and gas exploration and production spending. "The year 2000 will be a transition year, the later we get into the year the better things will become...We troughed in the third quarter (1999)," Robert Rose, Chairman, President and CEO of offshore driller Global Marine. "But we have to wait to 2001 before we start having the kind of earnings we had in 1997…

U.S. oil drillers expect weaker or flat first quarter earnings but see revenues picking up later in the year as recent high oil prices trickle down to the service sector. According to sector company executives, the recovery is set to begin in the second half of this year for most, and improve markedly in 2001 as major, independent and national oil firms ramp up oil and gas exploration and production spending. "The year 2000 will be a transition year, the later we get into the year the better things will become...We troughed in the third quarter (1999)," Robert Rose, Chairman, President and CEO of offshore driller Global Marine. "But we have to wait to 2001 before we start having the kind of earnings we had in 1997…

period of thirty days, according to a statement by Claude Mandil, IEA Executive Director. approach as the most effective mechanism. emergency response as timely and appropriate. immediately and will continue into October. available on the pace of recovery and adequacy of supplies to the market. will take place end September or early October. nations and the OPEC Secretariat.