1. Active oil and gas rigs in the United States rose for the fourth consecutive week
Baker Hughes, the US energy services company, said in a closely watched report on Friday that the number of active oil and gas rigs in the United States increased by eight to 346 in the week ending December 18, the fourth straight week. Crude oil prices have been above $45 since the end of November, prompting producers to resume production.
2. Hilcorp completes $5.6 billion acquisition of BP’s Alaska Business
Harvest Alaska, a midstream service provider, completed a $5.6 billion acquisition of BP’s Alaska business, taking over the 60 year old region of the British oil giant, hilcorp Energy said on December 18. Through the acquisition, hilcorp, based in Texas, has become the second largest oil producer and reserve holder in Texas, after ConocoPhillips.
3. EP energy quit Permian Basin business
EP Energy said recently that it had signed a sale and purchase agreement with an unnamed buyer to sell its assets in the southern Midland basin. With the completion of the divestiture of the Permian Basin, EP energy will become an operator with two basins by the end of January, with multiple blocks in Northeast Utah and the eagle Ford shale area.
4. Algeria’s hydrocarbon production will shrink 8% year on year in 2020
Algerian Energy Minister abdelmadjid attar said on December 19 that due to the pandemic and slow economic growth, Algeria’s oil and gas production will reach 143 million tons of oil equivalent in 2020, 8% lower than that in 2019, and the export will drop to 82 million tons of oil equivalent in 2020. Hydrocarbon revenues, including petrochemicals, will fall by a third to $22 billion, from $33 billion in 2019, he added.
5. BPCL to acquire 36.62% stake in Barat Oman refinery
India’s state-owned oil and gas company, Bharat oil company (BPCL), will acquire Oman’s 36.62% stake in borl from OQ. Oman’s state-owned OQ is a national oil investment company that invests in power generation, energy transportation and infrastructure, refining and petrochemical products manufacturing.
6. OPEC + promises to actively respond to the rebalancing of the oil market
Saudi energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman and Russian Deputy Prime Minister and energy minister Alexander Novak met in Riyadh on Saturday and said countries participating in the cut-off agreement would “comply with, reduce and compensate for overproduction”. At a time when the covid-19 pandemic continues to hit global demand, positive measures will be taken to rebalance the oil market.
7. Fitch confirms ADNOC’s AA + rating
Fitch confirmed that the independent credit rating of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company is AA + due to its high upstream production, large oil reserves and extremely low production costs. The UAE accounts for 5.6% of the world’s proven oil reserves and 4% of global production. Most of the production comes from fields managed by ADNOC. ADNOC, now Fitch’s highest rated oil and gas company, last month announced plans to invest $122 billion over the next five years, of which $43.5 billion will go to the local economy. The company also announced onshore recoverable unconventional oil resources, estimated to be 22 billion barrels, and conventional oil reserves increased by 2 billion barrels. This makes the UAE the world’s sixth largest oil reserves.
8. BP and Reliance Industries begin to produce gas in India’s ultra deep water block
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and BP announced the start of production of R cluster in ultra deep water gas field in kg D6 block, east coast of India.
RIL and BP are developing three deepwater gas projects, located in block kg d6-r block, satellite cluster and MJ, which are expected to meet 15% of India’s gas demand by 2023. These projects will utilize the existing hub infrastructure in kg D6 block. RIL is the operator of kg D6, with 66.67% participation interest and BP 33.33% participation interest.
By 2023, peak gas production from these three fields is expected to reach about 30 million standard cubic meters (1 billion cubic feet / day), which is expected to account for about 25% of India’s domestic gas production, which will help reduce the country’s dependence on imported natural gas.
Post time: Dec-21-2020