The gas giant Gazprom is no longer in the spotlight after the US Treasury sanctioned Rosneft, the Russian national oil company, most probably triggering the collapse of the OPEC+ agreement and bringing about an unexpectedly low pricing environment for March 2020 within both the oil and gas segments. Having launched …
Read More »Iraq Wants 30% Capex Cut from Foreign Oil Firms
Iraq, one of the oil producers worst hit by the oil price crash, is proposing that all foreign oil firms operating in OPEC’s second-largest producer cut their budgets by 30 percent on the condition that crude production levels do not suffer, Reuters reported on Friday, quoting local officials and industry …
Read More »Prepare For a Massive Oil Demand Shock
Global oil demand could plummet by 18.7 million bpd in April, deepening an expected demand plunge of 10.5 million bpd for March, Goldman Sachs said, while the coronavirus pandemic continues to claim thousands of lives and forces a growing number of major economies into lockdown. “A demand shock of this …
Read More »Russia’s Move in European Gas Markets
Russia sees a silver lining in the oil price collapse—it now believes that the oil price war will help it win the war for natural gas market share in Europe. Russia’s gas giant Gazprom, the single largest supplier of natural gas to Europe, has watched with apprehension the growing volumes …
Read More »Oil Demand Expected to Take a Major Hit in the Coronavirus Pandemic
Right after Saudi Arabia-led OPEC and Russia broke up their pact to keep oil supply and prices in check, some in the U.S. oil industry were optimistic that oil prices would go back up to $65 by the end of the year regardless of the end of the production restrictions. …
Read More »The Impact of Coronavirus On European Oilfield Services
More than 200 small- and medium-sized oilfield services operators in Europe, or 20 percent of all European oilfield services firm, could go bust as the coronavirus epidemic will hit the market hard and wipe out US$5 billion worth of orders, Rystad Energy said in a new impact analysis. Most of …
Read More »Japan Launches Its First Large-Scale Offshore Wind Farm
Moves to unlock the full potential of Japan’s offshore wind industry are underway with the announcement of a task force set up to accelerate the sector’s development. Ambitions are to see the country’s renewables share increase from 16 percent to 24 percent by 2030 through a mixture of methods – …
Read More »Saudi’s Aramco Sees Profits Fall By $22 Billion
Saudi Aramco reported a net profit of $88.2 billion for 2019, down from $111.1 billion a year earlier as low oil prices and production curbs took their toll on the world’s largest oil company. Free cash flow was also lower, at $78.3 billion, down from $85.8 billion in 2018, but …
Read More »Mediation between the Two Oil Powerhouses may be Impossible Right Now
Attempts by some OPEC members to mediate between the cartel’s leader, Saudi Arabia, and Russia have failed and this Wednesday’s meeting of an OPEC+ technical committee has been scrapped amid the “full on war” between the friends turned foes, sources told Reuters on Monday. The meeting of the Joint Technical …
Read More »Saudi Arabia’s Terrible Decision
Those with a functioning memory may have thought that last week’s decision by Saudi Arabia to maximize oil production to crash oil prices and bankrupt U.S. shale producers was an early April Fool’s Day joke. Apparently, though, it is not, and collective amnesia seems to have gripped senior Saudis and …
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