Shale Oil Gas News

Alexander Dyukov said that the high interest rates in the oil industry could have a negative impact on firms providing support services. This raised "serious concern".According to a recent poll, the Russian central bank will likely increase its key rate this week by 200 basis points, to 23%, due to the high inflation caused by a weaker ruble.Dyukov told reporters that his company is strong enough to withstand high borrowing costs, and plans to increase investments in the next year."As far as the partner companies are concerned, such as oil services, they do not all have a margin of safety." Dyukov stated that this raises grave concerns.

Shell is stepping back from new offshore wind investments and is splitting its power division following an extensive review of the business that was once seen as a key driver of the company's energy transition strategy.The changes are part of a company-wide review launched in 2023 aimed at reducing costs as CEO Wael Sawan focuses on activities with the highest returns. In many cases that has meant reducing spending on low-carbon and renewable businesses and increasing the focus on oil…

Rising costs of building and equipping new U.S. liquefied natural gas plants will reduce the competitiveness of U.S. gas exports, LNG analysts at Poten & Partners predicted on Tuesday.The Biden administration's export permitting pause likely will keep global LNG prices higher for longer, and benefit existing exporters, Poten said at its Global LNG Outlook conference.Jason Feer, Poten's business intelligence chief, also said that for the firms proposing new export plants along the U.S.

U.S. crude oil and gasoline inventories last week rose more than forecast, while distillate stockpiles posted a larger-than-expected draw, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.Crude inventories rose by 545,000 barrels to 430.3 million barrels in the week ended Nov. 15, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 138,000-barrel rise.Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub fell by 140,000 barrels in the week, the EIA said. Net U.S.

The Norwegian Offshore Directorate said that Norway's oil and gas production in October exceeded the official forecast by 5 percent.Norway is Europe's biggest supplier of natural gases and oil. However, output can vary from month to months depending on maintenance and other stops at over 90 offshore fields.The total oil, gas liquids, natural condensate and gas production stood at 0.657 standard cubic metres (SCM) per day. This is equivalent to 4,13 million barrels oil equivalent.The…

Longer sailing distances cushion fall in US crude oil exportsTon mile demand generated by US crude oil exports has fallen by 9.7% in the first two months of 2021 compared with the start of 2020. The fall could however have been much worse; In volume terms, seaborne crude oil exports have fallen by 18.8%, to 20.9m tonnes, a 4.8m tonnes decline compared with last year, according to data from the US Census Bureau.While seaborne crude oil exports to all regions have fallen, those to Asia are among the least affected, down just 1.0%, or equivalent to one Aframax load (101,088 tonnes).

Enterprise Products Partners LP said it would offer spot shipments of crude on an existing pipeline from the U.S. Gulf coast to Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for benchmark U.S. crude futures, as demand to store oil inland surges.The move marks a sharp reversal from recent pipeline projects that were all built connecting inland markets to the Gulf Coast as U.S. crude exports climbed to record highs after Washington lifted a ban in late 2015.However, the coronavirus pandemic has crushed global oil demand and dented U.S.

A growing number of oil tankers across Europe have been unable to unload their cargo over the past month as refining demand crashes, turning them into de facto floating storage, according to shipping data and trading sources.European refineries have had to cut runs after measures put in place to contain the coronavirus outbreak crushed fuel demand.More than 25 tankers with roughly 18 million barrels onboard were anchored near European ports, with most them already there for over a week as of Thursday…

Oil traders are storing as much as 80 million barrels of oil on tankers at sea, with further ships being sought as land storage sites fill up fast due to a global glut of stocks, shipping industry sources say.Traders rushed for storage after global oil demand collapsed by a third due to the coronavirus outbreak, and as top producers Saudi Arabia and Russia have refused to curb output so far, creating what is believed to be the biggest oil glut in history.The last time floating storage reached similar levels was in 2009…

The discount on front-month Brent crude oil futures to later contracts increased to an 11 year high on Thursday, as the coronavirus pandemic continued to cause an unprecedented slump in global demand. The spread on the May to November contracts had widened to as much as minus $10.31 per barrel at 1004 GMT, a level not seen since January 2009. The so-called contango market structure implies traders expect oil prices to be higher in the future, in this case when the virus pandemic has hopefully passed, leading them to store crude onshore or in some cases at sea.

Libya's internationally recognized government will start an investigation into a tanker over alleged sanctions-breaking after a period of quarantine ends in two weeks, the coast guard commander who seized the vessel said on Wednesday.The coast guard at Misrata seized the Gulf Petroleum 4 three days ago, Rida Issa said, after the National Oil Corporation (NOC) said the tanker had broken an arms embargo and other international agreements by offloading jet fuel in Benghazi.Benghazi is the seat of a parallel administration in the east whose Libyan National Army (LNA) has been trying for a year to capture the capital Tripoli, where the internationally…

Royal Dutch Shell is in discussions to charter at least three supertankers to store around 6 million barrels of crude oil at sea, shipping sources said on Wednesday.Shell has provisionally booked the vessels, known as very large crude carriers (VLCCs), for storage options for at least three months, the sources said, adding that the fixtures were still to be concluded.A Shell spokeswoman declined to comment.If fully fixed, these would be the first tankers to be used for floating…

Oil prices edged higher on Thursday as investors focused on the possibility of deeper supply cuts from the world's biggest producers, whilst largely shrugging off reports which cut demand forecasts after the coronavirus outbreak in China, the biggest oil importer.Brent crude was up 32 cents, or 0.6%, at $56.11 a barrel by 10:52 a.m. ET (1552 GMT), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was up 14 cents at $51.31 a barrel.The energy complex was led higher by U.S. gasoline futures…

Houston-based Castleton Resources said that its subsidiary Castleton Commodities International LLC (CCI) has closed on the acquisition of the East Texas and North Louisiana Haynesville Shale assets of BG US Production Company LLC, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc. Pro forma for the acquisition, Castleton Resources will hold approximately 222,400 net acres in the region and produce approximately 334 MMcfe/d (net). Castleton Resources is owned by CCI and Tokyo Gas America Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd. Concurrent with the transaction, Tokyo Gas America Ltd. will increase its interest in Castleton Resources from 30% to approximately 46%.

ESAI Energy, an oil & energy data provider, believes both the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) are overly optimistic in their November projections of US crude oil production in 2020, according to the company’s latest North America Watch.ESAI Energy sees a deceleration in growth to about 650,000 b/d next year, in contrast to the EIA and IEA forecasts of 1.0 million b/d and 900,000 b/d, respectively.ESAI points to declining capital expenditures by many shale producers in response to investor pressure to spend within cash flow, a service sector that is idling equipment and laying off workers…

Natural gas flaring in the Permian dropped in the first quarter of 2019 – the first drop in one-and-a-half years, according to energy research firm Rystad Energy.Rystad Energy has been closely monitoring the level of natural gas flaring in the Permian since 2017. "Our previous quarterly estimate suggested that basin-wide gas flaring reached record-high levels of beyond 660 million cubic feet per day (MMcfd) in the fourth quarter of 2018 and the first quarter of 2019," it said.However, just released final data for the first quarter of 2019 have led to a downward revision of our previous flaring estimate by 7%, to 613 MMcfd.“This is the first time that has happened over the past 1.5 years.

Though bankruptcies among U.S. onshore exploration and production (E&P) companies are on the increase during these days, Rystad Energy doesn’t believe this indicates doom for the shale industry.“In a nutshell, we do not believe the recent bankruptcies that have beset a number of shale players are indicative of an industry-wide epidemic,” says Alisa Lukash, a senior analyst on Rystad Energy’s North American Shale team.During the next seven years, the top 40 US shale oil producers are expected to spend about $100 billion on debt instalments and interest unless further debt refinancing is applied.These drillers, which accounted for nearly half of US shale crude production in 2018…

U.S. energy firms this week reduced the number of oil rigs operating for a seventh week in a row as producers follow through on plans to cut spending on new drilling this year.Drillers cut 3 oil rigs in the week to Oct. 4, bringing the total count down to 710, the lowest since May 2017, General Electric Co's Baker Hughes energy services firm said in its closely followed report on Friday.In the same week a year ago, there were 861 active rigs.The oil rig count, an early indicator of future output…

Frac water demand is expected to increase 30% by 2022, with 53% of that increase taking place in the Permian Basin, said Rystad Energy in its recently released “Water Management Report”.The increase in water demand is mostly driven by increases in forecasted completions activity, and the continued trend towards longer laterals.Rystad Energy expects frac water demand across the US to hit 4.9 billion barrels in 2019, with 2.28 billion barrels taking place in the Permian Basin.Rystad Energy normally defines spare capacity as a country’s underutilized capacity, including any current outages.

Flaring and venting in the Permian Basin has stabilized in the range of 600 million to 650 million cubic feet per day (MMcfd), according to Rystad Energy’s preliminary data for the third quarter of 2019.Venting is gas release without combustion, whereas flaring is the burning of excess capacity. In New Mexico, vented and flared gas is reported separately and our research indicates that, on average, 5% to 15% of total flared and vented production stream is vented.In particular, reported data from recent quarters shows a significant decrease in the frequency of venting relative to flaring, with only 8% of waste gas being vented. In the case of Texas…

US shale supply will peak at approximately 14.5 million barrels per day (bpd) around 2030, said the energy research and business intelligence company Rystad Energy.In the past decade, crude oil coming from shale patches such as the Permian in the US has grown from a negligible contributor to an upstream behemoth, reshaping the industry and the oil market.US Light Tight Oil (LTO) represented less than 1% of global oil supply just nine years ago. Today, US LTO represents close to 10% of total global oil supply, a percentage which is expected to continue its ascent going forward. But by how much? That is the million-dollar question.Different agencies and knowledge houses have responded to this with varying degrees of positivity and skepticism.

U.S. shale operators are on track to grow 2019 oil production by around 16% over 2018 thanks to impressive operational execution so far this year.The third quarter earnings season revealed that shale companies increased their oil production by about two percent, all while cutting the midpoint guidance for yearly drilling and completions expenses, according to Rystad Energy.The energy research and consulting firm headquartered in Norway said that U.S. shale operators will continue expanding in the fourth quarter, growing oil production by at least 1.3 percent on a quarterly basis.“The actual results so far this year reaffirm our optimistic expectations for the remainder of the year.

The U.S. could see its crude oil exports nearly double by 2022, according to energy research firm Rystad Energy. US crude exports could grow from current levels of 2.9 million barrels per day (bpd) to nearly 6 million bpd by 2022.With US production expected to increase by 1.2 million bpd year-over-year (y/y) in 2020, and with domestic refineries already maxing out capacity to absorb shale growth, Rystad Energy expects exports to balloon and reach 4.7 million bpd by the end of 2020 and nearly 6 million bpd by the end of 2022.“Crude exports will grow on the back of new infrastructure coming online in Corpus Christi, Texas, and as international…