S Largest Oil Producer News

Russia energy infrastructure has been hit by drone attacks and fires in the past month, adding to uncertainty in global oil and gas markets already rocked by the conflict in the Middle East.Russia and Ukraine have targeted each other's energy infrastructure in strikes designed to disrupt supply lines and logistics and to demoralise their opponent as they try to get the edge in a nearly two-year-old war that shows no sign of ending.Following are recent major incidents at Russian oil facilities in the past month:* A Russian appointed official said on Jan.

Russia's second-largest oil producer Lukoil has set up ship-to-ship (STS) loadings of Urals oil near the western port of Kaliningrad, Refinitiv Eikon data showed and trading sources told Reuters on Wednesday.The data shows 100,000 tonnes of Urals crude was loaded on the Andaman Skies tanker at the Baltic port of Primorsk on Feb. 11.

Oil prices surged to seven-year highs on Friday, extending their rally into a seventh week on ongoing worries about supply disruptions fueled by frigid U.S. weather and ongoing political turmoil among major world producers.Brent crude rose $2.16, or 2.4%, to settle at $93.27 a barrel having earlier touched its highest since October 2014 at $93.70.U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude ended $2.04, or 2.3%, higher at $92.31 a barrel after trading as high as $93.17, its highest since September 2014.Brent ended the week 3.6% higher…

U.S. oil offshore losses remained at 76% on Thursday after Hurricane Ida hit the Gulf of Mexico, according to government data, which prolonged outages and caused the first oil cargo shipment cancellations to buyers in Asia.Production should be disrupted for several more days amid lasting damages to transfer stations and offshore facilities used by different companies, analysts said, with impact to oil prices."It seems to be at least more than a week away until most of the shut-in Gulf of Mexico production is restored…

Denmark has reached a deal on the construction of the first of its kind wind energy hub in the North Sea that promises to produce yet unseen amounts of green electricity, in what has been described as the largest construction project in Danish history.The energy hub - an artificial island - will serve as an offshore power plant gathering and distributing green electricity from hundreds of wind turbines surrounding the island directly to consumers in countries surrounding the North Sea.

Norway's oil minister reiterated on Tuesday that Western Europe's largest oil producer was soon to conclude whether to cut its output following historical curbs agreed by the OPEC+ group.Brent crude front-month contract fell to $18.10 a barrel on Tuesday, its lowest since December 2001, after U.S. May futures dropped to minus $40 a barrel on Monday due to worries about the novel coronavirus pandemic's impact on fuel demand."We have not yet concluded. It will happen soon," Oil…

Gazprom Neft, is the third largest oil producer in Russia, and Mubadala Petroleum (Abu Dhabi, UAE) have entered into a memorandum of understanding in the field of technological cooperation.The partners agreed to work together to create new technologies that include the development of innovative solutions in oil production and digitization of production processes.Gazprom Neft and Mubadala Petroleum are partners in the Gazpromneft-Vostok joint venture, which manages the development of 12 fields in the Tomsk and Omsk regions of Western Siberia. This joint venture is also involved in implementing a technological project — the “Paleozoic…

Brazil’s Petrobras is on track to become the world’s largest oil producer among publicly listed companies by 2030, based on Rystad Energy’s latest data and forecasts.Brazil’s biggest-ever oil auctions in November were generally deemed to be disappointing, receiving muted interest from international exploration and production companies.However, national oil company Petrobras could not have asked for a better outcome. The world’s fastest growing oil producer gained nearly full control of more than eight billion barrels of oil in the Buzios field, where a sixth floater is being planned.To develop these and other resources off the coast of the South American country, Brazil is set for a whopping $70 billion offshore capital investment spree between 2020 and 2025, solely on field development.

South Korea said on Wednesday it would seek U.S. exemptions to buy Iranian oil, a path many big oil consumers are likely to follow in the wake of new U.S. sanctions on Tehran, which will tighten world oil markets and push up prices.Iran is the third-largest oil producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and a key supplier, especially to refiners in Asia.The United States plans to impose new unilateral sanctions after abandoning an agreement reached in late 2015 which limited Iran's nuclear ambitions in exchange for removing joint U.S.-Europe sanctions…

Oil prices are at more than three-year highs, driven by an expectation that renewed U.S. sanctions on Tehran over the country's nuclear program will disrupt Iranian crude flows.But without the Europe Union, or Iran's other big crude customers, joining the effort, as the EU did in 2012, it will be harder for Washington to hit Iran where it really hurts.U.S.

Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft has rejected a proposal from its rival Summa Group to complete a deal to buy a Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP), a Transneft spokesman said on Monday.If the deal goes ahead it will allow Transneft to take control of Russia's largest port operator. But Transneft said earlier this month it had suspended talks on the deal after the authorities arrested the co-owner of Summa, Ziyavudin Magomedov, on charges of embezzling more than $35 million.Magomedov denied the charges at a pre-trial hearing…

Exxon Mobil Corp will exit some joint ventures with Russia's Rosneft, citing Western sanctions first imposed in 2014, while the Russian company said the pullout will result in serious losses for its U.S. partner. The move is an about-face for Exxon, which had opposed the sanctions over Russia's invasion of Crimea and argued they unfairly penalized U.S. companies while allowing foreign energy rivals to operate in the country, the world's largest oil producer. Yet the sanctions…

Norway's plan for Arctic oil exploration is unconstitutional because it violates the right to a healthy environment, a lawyer for Greenpeace and the Nature and Youth environmental group told an Oslo court on Tuesday. The case is the first of its kind in Norway and says a 2015 oil licensing round in the Arctic that gave awards to Statoil , Chevron and others violates the constitution. Norway signed the 2016 Paris accord, which aims to end the fossil fuel era this century. The country is Western Europe's largest oil producer and oil and gas are its most important exports.

Oil prices edged lower on Friday and were on track for weekly losses, weighed down by rising OPEC exports and strong output from the United States. Brent crude futures, the international benchmark, were trading at $51.76 a barrel at 1141 GMT, 25 cents below the last close and heading for a fall of close to 1.5 percent on the week. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were 30 cents lower at $48.73 per barrel and were set to drop by around 2 percent for the week. Analysts said prices were pressured by rising output, although strong demand limited the losses.

Oil giant Saudi Aramco has selected JPMorgan Chase & Co, Morgan Stanley, and HSBC Holdings Plc as lead underwriters on the firm's planned initial public share offering, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Saudi Arabian Oil Co, known as Saudi Aramco, was not immediately available for comment. Saudi authorities are aiming to list up to 5 percent of the world's largest oil producer on both the Saudi stock exchange in Riyadh, the Tadawul, and one or more international markets in an IPO that could raise $100 billion. The listing is the centerpiece of a Saudi Arabian government plan to transform the kingdom by enticing investment and diversifying the economy away from reliance on oil.

Restrictions on Iranian tankers’ insurance have been removed and the country’s crude carriers are now allowed to enter any oil terminal in the world, National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC)'s CEO Ali Akbar Safaee said. “With the resolution of insurance problems, international insurance institutes have  expanded their coverage to Iranian vessels, which can now berth at all ports,”he said. “Accordingly, all tankers that are under Iran’s ownership as well as any [foreign] tanker that enters Iran’s ports will not have any problem with regards to the issue of insurance," he added. He explained that in the wake of the removal of the sanctions foreign ships are also now able to dock at the Iranian ports.

Russian oil producer Rosneft's Vietnamese subsidiary has started drilling an exploration well off the south coast of Vietnam, it said on Wednesday. It is Rosneft's first individual international offshore drilling project as an operator, Russia's largest oil producer said in a statement. After the completion of the PLDD-1X well, at Block 06.1, Rosneft will drill another exploration well in Block 05.3/11, also in the Nam Con Son Basin, in the Vietnamese waters, it said. "I am sure that the experience gained in Vietnam will be used by the company not only in its activity in the southern seas," Rosneft Chief Executive Igor Sechin said in a statement, adding it would help with planning and implementing upstream projects in remote areas.

Two new Aker Arctic designed icebreakers, under construction at the PJSC Vyborg Shipyard in Russia, will have their main power provided by Wärtsilä generating sets. The ships are being built for Gazprom Neft based in St.Petersburg, Russia. The contract was agreed between Wärtsilä and Ruselprom Group and was signed in October. The new icebreakers will operate in arctic conditions with outside air temperatures as low as minus 50°C and ice thicknesses up to 2 metres. Because of these challenging operational considerations, the reliability and overall efficiency of the Wärtsilä machinery were prime considerations in the award of this contract. The ability of the Wärtsilä engines to operate efficiently with such low air suction temperatures provides the basis for an arctic package solution.

An intensifying rivalry between China's two top oil traders Chinaoil and Unipec is whipsawing Asia's oil market, pitting the state-owned firms against each other in a battle for control of the region's crude benchmark. Aggressive trading - with heavy buying by Chinaoil met by selling from Unipec - has pushed up Middle East crude prices for Asia, even as other grades are being pressed lower by a global glut. Asian buyers are being driven to seek cheaper oil elsewhere or cut refinery runs, but analysts say Beijing is unlikely to intervene in a process that reflects the growing clout of Chinese traders in global oil markets. The volumes…

The Houston-based NASDAQ-listed drilling contractor Hercules Offshore Inc. (HERO) has entered a restructuring agreement with a noteholder group, and expects a prepackaged reorganization plan. HERO says the agreement will convert $1.2B of debt to new common equity, and noteholders will backstop $450M of new debt financing to fully fund the remaining construction cost of the Hercules Highlander and provide additional liquidity to fund the company's operations. HERO's existing equity holders will see their stake reduced to 3.1%. John T. "The Agreement we reached contemplates a value maximizing transaction for the Company, which we expect will impact our balance sheet only, while our operations will continue as usual.

Russia's third-largest oil producer Surgutneftegaz has awarded Glencore the right to lift 1.2 million tonnes of crude oil from Russian Baltic Sea ports, traders said on Thursday. The cargoes, 200,000 tonnes a month, can be lifted between July and December this year. (Reporting by Gleb Gorodyankin; writing by Vladimir Soldatkin)

Continental Resources Inc, the largest oil producer in North Dakota's Bakken shale formation, promoted Jack Stark to president on Wednesday, less than a week after Rick Bott quit the position. Stark, 59, had worked at Continental since 1998, most recently as head of exploration. The promotion instantly makes Stark the top contender to replace founder and Chief Executive Harold Hamm. Bott stepped down as president last week, a move that surprised many on Wall Street, and even some inside the company. Continental is set to hold an analyst day on Thursday in Oklahoma City. (Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by David Gregorio)

Continental Resources Inc, the largest oil producer in North Dakota's Bakken shale formation, said on Thursday that Rick Bott, its president and chief operating officer, had resigned. Bott, 54, was widely considered the likely successor to Continental Chief Executive Officer Harold Hamm, 68. His departure leaves a talent gap at the top of the company, which is in the midst of an ambitious attempt to double its 2012 production levels by 2017. Continental said Bott's duties will be divided between remaining executives. It was not immediately clear why Bott resigned or if he had secured a new job. Before joining Continental in 2012, Bott had worked at Cairn India Ltd and in Devon Energy Corp's international division. Calls to Bott were not immediately returned.