worst-oil-shock-over

Qatari Commercial Bank Says The Worst Oil Shock Is Over

The worst of the shock to oil markets and economies stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic is already behind us, the top executive of one of the largest commercial banks in Qatar told Bloomberg TV in an interview on Wednesday as the Middle East countries are reeling from the double shock of the coronavirus and oil price collapse on their economies.

“We look forward to reset the button as and when the world reaches normalcy,” Raghavan Seetharaman, chief executive officer at Doha Bank QPSC, told Bloomberg TV.

At the end of last month, Amin Nasser, president and CEO of the world’s biggest oil company, Saudi Aramco, said that the worst in the oil market was over, adding that he as “very optimistic” for the second half of this year.

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Source: Oil Price

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oil-and-gas

Microsoft and Halliburton Are Building The Oilfield Of The Future

The oilfield has historically been a place where brawny men, and mighty machines came together to bore holes deeply into the earth to wrest stores of oil and gas from the depths. This model, which developed over many decades of exploration and production activity carried huge costs, particularly as the focus of this activity moved into more and more inaccessible regions. The current oil crash and resultant industry consolidation, began in 2014, and continues to this day. Downturns are nothing new to this industry. The difference this time is the longevity and severity of this downturn has kept any real recovery from taking place in the broader industry. Companies have been forced into retrenchment after retrenchment in both the operating and service industry.

Energy giant, Halliburton, (NYSE: HAL) reported results last week, and largely surprised analysts with their ability to cut costs and generate Free Cash Flow, in a constantly shrinking market. What escaped much notice in the conference call after the earnings release, was the direction that Halliburton CEO, Jeff Miller sees shaping up for the oilfield of the future. In this article we will take a look at some of the key manifestations of this change.

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Source: Oil Price

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us-oil-producers

Among Top Oil U.S. Oil Producers, North Dakota’s Retreat Is Fastest

North Dakota produces more crude oil per capita than other any large oil-producing state in the country, including nearly 10 times more than Texas. So on Friday, when the state released new oil production data for May, it hurt.

Between January and May North Dakota’s crude oil production plummeted 40%, according to data released late last week by the state, outpacing the 10% overall decline in U.S. production over the same period.

The size of the drop in the state’s production — from 1.4 million barrels per day (b/d) at the start of the year to 860,000 b/d by May — could exceed the oil production decline in Texas in both percentage terms and outright, even though Texas produces four times more oil.

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Source: Forbes

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conventional-refining

Italian Oil Major Looks To Leave Conventional Refining

Italian major Eni plans to exit traditional refining activities within the next decade as it is focused on bio-refineries and accelerating its transition to low-carbon energy, chief executive Claudio Descalzi told Bloomberg in an interview.

The top executive spoke a month after Eni announced in June a “new business structure to be a leader in the energy transition,” creating an Energy Evolution division in the company to accelerate its plans to significantly boost renewable power generation and biofuels production.

Eni has bio-refineries in Venice and Gela, Italy, converted from conventional fossil-fuel refineries into bio-refineries to produce high-quality, cleaner fuels.

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Source: Oil Price

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oil-natural-gas

OPEC Looks To Boost Production By 2 Million Bpd

In retrospect, it’s impressive that it lasted as long as it did. Four months after OPEC cobbled together a record production cut to offset the demand destruction unleashed by the COVID-19 lockdowns, R-OPEC+ (i.e., OPEC plus Russia and a bunch of non-OPEC exporters) is set to slowly resume pumping more after an alliance of producers led by Saudi Arabia wants to increase oil production starting in August, amid signs that demand is returning to normal levels following coronavirus-related lockdowns Bloomberg and the Journal reported overnight.

Bloomberg confirms as much, noting overnight that “having successfully doubled crude prices over the past few months through unprecedented output cuts, the OPEC+ alliance led by the Saudis and Russia is poised to begin unwinding these stimulus measures. As fuel demand recovers with the lifting of coronavirus lockdowns, the producers are about to open the taps a little.”

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Source: Oil Price

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crude-oil-shortage

Crude Oil Shortages Beginning To Bite In Key Markets

Last month, OPEC and its non-OPEC allies, known as OPEC+, agreed to extend their deep production cuts through July in an effort to rebalance oversupplied markets in the face of pandemic-hit demand. The cuts were supposed to take ~10% off the markets with July’s cut clocking in at 9.6 million bpd.

But now there are signs that the pendulum could have swung a bit too far, with the markets beginning to experience shortages of key crude grades.

There are growing signs that the markets are undersupplied with Urals and Arab Light thanks to continuing deep production cuts as well as a rebound in demand by key customers such as China and Northern Asia.

The price of Urals, Russia’s flagship grade, has flipped to record premiums to the Brent crude benchmark, briefly changing hands at $2.40 a barrel above Dated Brent last week to reflect the undersupply.

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Source: Oil Price

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oil-gas-cyber-threats

How has insurance changed to protect oil and gas from cyber threats

For defence and prevention, cybersecurity in the time of Covid has involved contracts with software companies and considerations in planning. For mitigation and eliminating risk, this has come back to the insurance industry.

Insurers have changed their policies to encompass cyber threats, but now BRIT Insurance is offering an individual cyber-insurance policy. James Bright, senior underwriter for war and terrorism at BRIT Insurance said: “Oil and gas companies deal with massive assets, both above and below the sea, and above and below ground.

“Obviously it’s also an extensive use of manpower across their asset base, and all of the infrastructure is heavily automated. When something goes wrong, it can go wrong extremely quickly and cause catastrophic loss. So risk management procedures need to be rigorous, and education of employees in work practices should be at the top of the agenda.”

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Source: Offshore-technology.com

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saudi-arabia-oil-gas

Saudi Arabia Eyes Total Dominance in Oil and Gas

Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz claimed last week that the Kingdom will be the world’s biggest hydrocarbon producer “even” in 2050.

“I can assure that Saudi Arabia will not only be the last producer, but Saudi Arabia will produce every molecule of hydrocarbon and it will put it to good use … It will be done in the most environmentally sound and safe way and the most sustainable way,” Abdulaziz said when asked about the oil market outlook in 2050 during a virtual conference convened by Saudi Arabia’s Future Investment Initiative Institute (FII-I).

Abdulaziz added that Saudi Arabia “will be the last and biggest producer of hydrocarbon even then,” referring to 2050.

But is Saudi Arabia’s the world’s leading hydrocarbon producer now? And what is its legitimate prospect for being the largest hydrocarbon producer in 2050?

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Source: Oil Price

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oil-drilling-operations

Norway Is Expanding Its Arctic Oil Drilling Operations

Norway is looking to offer 136 blocks for oil and gas exploration in the licensing round for less explored areas on its shelf, including 125 blocks in the Arctic Barents Sea that are currently not available for drilling, the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy said on Wednesday.

The so-called 25th numbered licensing round – expected to be announced in the fall of 2020 after consultation on the proposed areas for oil drilling – typically includes frontier parts of the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS).

According to Norway’s oil ministry, it will be the frontier regions that are most likely to host large new discoveries.

The ministry proposes nine frontier areas for exploration, including eight areas in the Barents Sea and one area in the Norwegian Sea. The proposal is now submitted for public consultation, which should be completed by August 26.

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Source: Oil Price

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gas-deal

UAE Oil Major Signs A $20 Billion Gas Deal

UAE’s ADNOC announced a $20.7-billion deal with six international companies for the acquisition of a minority stake in Adnoc Gas Pipeline Assets.

Under the terms of the deal, Global Infrastructure Partners, Brookfield Asset Management, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, Snam, and NH Investment and Securities will acquire a 49-percent interest in ADNOC Gas Pipeline Assets, a new subsidiary of the UAE’s national oil and gas company.

The acquisition will give the buyers lease rights to 38 pipelines, but ADNOC will retain ownership of the assets and responsibility for capital expenditure plans. The lease rights will be in effect for 20 years.

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Source: Oil Price

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