Washington has granted Iraq a shortened 45-day sanctions waiver to import Iranian gas that will expire days before US President Donald Trump’s term ends, an Iraqi official said Saturday. Baghdad buys gas and electricity from its neighbor Tehran to supply about a third of its power sector, worn down by …
Read More »Oil Rig Count Falls for the First Time in 2 Months
Baker Hughes reported on Friday that the number of oil rigs in the United States fell by 5 to 231, ending eight weeks of increases to oil rigs in the U.S. The total number of active oil and gas rigs decreased for the week by 2, with oil rigs decreasing …
Read More »Two-Thirds of Energy Company Employers Cut Labour Costs due to COVID
A survey by energy labour market organization PetroLMI shows that more than two-thirds of the employers in Canada’s oil and gas sector imposed labour cost reduction measures in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, including 37 per cent who enacted permanent layoffs. The division of Energy Safety Canada surveyed …
Read More »Iraq to Invite International Firms to Help Build 300,000 b/d Refinery
Iraq plans to invite international companies to compete in order to build a 300,000 b/d refinery south of the country, the oil minister said Nov. 18, as OPEC’s second largest oil producer seeks to wean itself off crude products imports. The refinery, to be built in Fao in the Basra …
Read More »Chevron Looks to Biden to Preserve Its Venezuela Foothold
Chevron’s willingness to keep a foothold in oil-rich Venezuela will now be a thorny political issue for President-elect Joe Biden to sort out. The U.S. Treasury Department extended until June 3 its authorization for Chevron to carry out essential transactions in the country to preserve its assets, from a previous …
Read More »World Energy Supply must be Sustainable
Any successful vaccine for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) would rely on the global energy sector for its mass production, said Ahmad Al-Khowaiter, chief technology officer at Saudi Aramco, on Tuesday. “Fortunately, we have an energy system in place that can power the manufacture, transportation and storage of the billions of …
Read More »UAE Achieves 126% Compliance with OPEC+ Quota in Oct
The UAE achieved 126% compliance with its OPEC+ quota in October, the energy ministry said late Nov. 17, as OPEC’s third largest producer sought to compensate for overproduction in August. The country’s compliance since the cuts were implemented in May is 101%, the ministry said in a statement on the …
Read More »China’s CNOOC to Add Six LNG Storage Tanks at Binhai Terminal
China’s biggest offshore oil and gas producer CNOOC Group will add 1.62 million cubic metres of storage capacity for liquefied natural gas (LNG) at its Binhai terminal in the eastern province of Jiangsu. The expansion will consist of six tanks with storage capacity of 270,000 cubic metres each and construction …
Read More »OPEC+ JMMC, Good Compliance for Now, Maximum Flexibility Going Forward
This was the most positive set of remarks so far this year by Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdul Aziz bin Salman, when he opened the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) of OPEC+ (an alliance between OPEC and 10 non-OPEC countries led by Russia). The JMMC monitors compliance of OPEC+ member …
Read More »OPEC+ Ministers Warn of Continued Oil Demand Fragility
As OPEC+ began talks on whether to postpone January’s oil-production increase, ministers sounded cautious about the strength of global demand. Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said he could see a light at the end of the tunnel thanks to the development of Covid-19 vaccines, but the market had …
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