Energy trade with China will remain strong in the long-term, officials said on Wednesday at a China-U.S. oil and gas forum in Houston, even as an escalating trade dispute hits U.S. exports of natural gas. Cooperation could be expanded and more could be done to promote trade and investment between the two countries, said Li Fanrong, China’s deputy administrator for the National Energy Administration. There is effective cooperation between China and the U.S., he said. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Liz Hampton)

Seadrill Norway Operations Limited has been awarded a contract for drilling two exploration wells for Equinor in the Barents Sea by use of the West Hercules rig. Drilling is scheduled to start in the spring of 2019. The contract includes options for drilling nine additional wells. The rig is primarily assigned for exploration drilling. The contract is based on a master framework agreement established between Seadrill and Equinor. The rig owner is responsible for integrated drilling services, such as casing running, remote-operated vessel (ROV), slop treatment and cuttings handling. “We ...

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that current high oil prices of between $70 and $80 per barrel were temporary and were mainly driven by sanctions, adding that the long-term price would stand at around $50 per barrel. Speaking at a meeting of government officials and the heads of domestic oil majors, convened to discuss ways of propping up domestic oil production, he said the $50 per barrel forecast was based on estimates by analysts and oil companies. “The current situation, related to the price rise to $70-$80 (per barrel), ...

Following calls for OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers to “institutionalize” their association, OPEC Secretary Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo has said the partnership is here to stay. Speaking at the Gulf Intelligence Energy Markets Forum in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates on Tuesday (September 18), Barkindo said OPEC is in fact looking at looking at having “a long-term cooperation agreement” with non-OPEC oil producers, the framework for which could be in place by December. The accord has seen the collective withdrawal of 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil production from the ...

U.S. crude stocks fell last week, while gasoline stocks decreased and distillate inventories rose, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. Crude inventories fell by 2.1 million barrels in the last week, compared with analysts’ expectations for an decrease of 2.7 million barrels. Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub fell by 1.25 million barrels, EIA said. Refinery crude runs fell by 442,000 barrels per day, EIA data showed. Refinery utilization rates fell by 2.2 percentage points. Gasoline stocks fell by 1.7 million barrels, compared with analysts’ expectations in ...

President Donald Trump pushed US LNG exports Tuesday as crucial to increasing European energy security during talks with Polish President Andrzej Duda while continuing his attacks on the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany. “A tremendous amount of LNG will be exported to Poland,” Trump said during a joint news conference with Duda. “We’re giving them a pretty good price. They’re buying a lot of it. That’s gonna be great.” Poland received its first US LNG cargo in June 2017 from the Sabine Pass LNG terminal ...

Nuclear restarts in Japan and early Chinese procurement of winter-strip or short-term LNG volumes could temper northeast Asia end-user spot demand at the start of the winter season, according to market participants. Spot prices surged in the third quarter of this year on persistent supply concerns, such as the Sakhalin LNG single-train outage in August, as well as robust northeast Asian demand due to a summer heatwave. The start-up delays for Australian LNG projects Ichthys and Prelude also contributed to perceptions of supply tightness during the winter, sources said. But ...

Developers of multibillion-dollar liquefied natural gas export terminals from the U.S. to Australia can breathe a sigh of relief: A supply boom hasn’t killed the long-term contracts that underpin the projects. Cheniere Energy Inc., America’s first and biggest shipper of shale gas, struck a 15-year agreement to sell the fuel to commodities trader Vitol Group, according to a statement Monday. The pact is Cheniere’s fifth this year. Venture Global LNG Inc., which is developing a terminal in Louisiana, has finalized four such contracts over that period. The Cheniere and Venture ...

Oil eased on Wednesday, but held near its highest level this year, as concerns that producers may fail to cover a supply shortfall once U.S. sanctions on Iran come into force outweighed an increase in U.S. inventories. Brent crude futures were down 15 cents at $78.88 a barrel by 1116 GMT, having gained 1.3 percent on Tuesday following media reports that Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, was comfortable with prices above $80. U.S. crude futures were down 6 cents at $69.79, after gaining 1.4 percent the day before. ...

The latest edition of Westwood’s World ROV Operations Market Forecast is now available. The market for work-class ROVs (WROVs) is fundamentally tied to the offshore oil & gas sector which is exiting a cyclical downturn and now entering a period of recovery. Cost efficiency remains critical and drives the need for modern systems that can maximise uptime. Demand for both traditional oil and gas applications and new offshore support roles will support a recovery in demand over the 2019-2023 forecast. Westwood estimates 2017 global utilisation reached a low of 32%, ...

Crude oil prices have been rising over the past couple of months due to US sanctions on Iranian crude oil exports, higher demand and decreasing output from Venezuela. The price of Brent crude is currently hovering around $78 /bbl, inching towards the $80/bbl mark (May-high). As a result, prices of petrol and diesel have been on the rise back home also. In India, oil companies set fuel prices on a daily basis. Factors influencing crude oil prices Supply-demand equation and market sentiment are the two key factors that influence oil ...

Oil and gas should be left out of the escalating trade dispute between the U.S. and China, global energy executives told CNBC. “One of the things that could be damaging for the LNG (liquefied natural gas) industry in the U.S. is the taxes that could be levied on them by China and others,” Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the chief executive of Qatar Petroleum, the biggest LNG exporter in the world, said. Al-Kaabi told CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick at the Gastech conference in Barcelona that the oil and gas sector should be “left ...

Iraq can increase oil production “immediately” to support the market ahead of the implementation of US sanctions on Iran, Iraq’s crude sales chief told S&P Global Platts. The comments from Alaa al-Yassiri, the director general of Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organization, come as officials from the group and its allies led by Russia are debating how to ensure market stability once the sanctions imposed by the order of US President Donald Trump come into force in November. Iran could lose up to 1.4 million b/d of exports by the end ...

Indications emerged yesterday that the sale of Nigeria crude oil in the international market is currently facing challenges due to surging production of United States shale crude, which experts say has similar geological properties. According to loading programmes compiled by Bloomberg, about 25 out of 60 Nigerian cargoes scheduled for October export remain unsold, while trading will switch to November shipments next week when new programmes are released. Another factor said to be impacting negatively on the country’s crude sales is the stoppage of crude imports from Nigeria by the ...

U.S. gas is under threat as a trade war with China escalates. China may target American liquefied natural gas in retaliation for a fresh round of duties announced Monday by the U.S. While the Asian nation last month said it was considering a 25 percent tariff on the fuel, it hadn’t yet provided any details when it vowed Tuesday to take new action. The move would be a setback for a burgeoning energy relationship that was on track to be a boon for both economies. The move would also add ...