A group of 13 major oil companies charted out a plan on Monday to promote investments in carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS), ahead of a gathering in New York. Oil chiefs grappling with growing demand for climate change action have looked to invest in carbon-capture and sequestration techniques that some executives, including Occidental Petroleum Corp CEO Vicki Hollub, say could make drilling carbon neutral. Carbon sequestration technology works by trapping carbon in caverns or porous [Read more]
U.S. oil drillers cut rigs to lowest since May 2017 -Baker Hughes
U.S. energy firms this week reduced the number of oil rigs operating for a fifth week in a row to the lowest since May 2017, even as crude prices jumped more than 7% this week after an attack halved output in the world's top oil exporter Saudi Arabia. Drillers cut 14 oil rigs in the week to Sept. 20, bringing the total count down to 719, 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 866 active [Read more]
Oil heading for 7% weekly gain after Saudi attacks
Oil prices were on track to jump more than 7% this week, their biggest weekly gain in months, on rising Middle East tensions after a key Saudi Arabian supply hub was knocked out in an attack last weekend. A Saudi-led coalition launched a military operation north of Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah, as the United States worked with Middle East and European nations to build a coalition to deter Iranian threats after the Saudi attack. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 59 [Read more]
Saudi Aramco confident full output from Khurais to resume by end of Sept
Saudi Aramco is confident full production will resume by the end of September from Khurais, one of two oil sites attacked about a week ago, a company executive said on Friday. Aramco was shipping equipment from the United States and Europe to rebuild the damaged facilities, Fahad Abdulkarim, Aramco's general manager for the southern area oil operation, told reporters on a tour organised by the state company. Reuters reporters were shown repair work under way, with cranes erected around two [Read more]
U.S. natgas futures fall over 3% on bigger-than-expected storage build
U.S. natural gas futures fell more than 3% from a near five-month high on Thursday following the release of a report showing a bigger-than-expected storage build. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said utilities added 84 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas to storage during the week ended Sept. 13. That was higher than the 78-bcf build analysts forecast in a Reuters poll and compares with an injection of 84 bcf during the same week last year and a five-year (2014-18) average [Read more]
Real crunch from Saudi Arabia’s oil outage has yet to be felt
Saudi Arabia's ability to avert a global oil supply crunch will only become clear in a few weeks, because for now its crude held in storage can fill the gap and mask the scale of damage to its facilities, traders and analysts say. Riyadh says production will be back to normal levels in two to three weeks, which means restoring output to about 10 million barrels per day (bpd), after Saturday's attacks on two sites that usually process and clean up about 5.7 million bpd. While it carries out [Read more]
Alberta sees progress on talks to ease oil curtailments
Premier Jason Kenney said on Wednesday he is hopeful of more progress this month on talks between his government and producers about easing oil curtailments, as long as extra output is shipped by rail. Alberta introduced mandatory production curtailments, effective Jan. 1 2019, to ease congestion on export pipelines and support crude prices. Last month Premier Jason Kenney's government extended those curtailments into 2020 because of slow progress in building new pipelines. Major producers [Read more]
Oil extends declines after Saudi pledge to restore lost output
Oil prices retreated on Wednesday, extending the previous day’s declines after Saudi Arabia said it would quickly restore full production following last weekend’s attacks on its facilities. Tension in the Middle East remained elevated, however, after Saudi Arabia said it would provide evidence on Wednesday linking Iran to the attacks. The United States had already said it believed the attacks against the world’s top oil exporter originated in southwestern Iran. Iran has denied involvement [Read more]
Minnesota court declines to review Enbridge Line 3 pipeline approval
The Minnesota Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear environmental and tribal challenges to Enbridge Inc’s Line 3 oil pipeline, a decision that removes one potential obstacle for the already-delayed project. The ruling means the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (MPUC), the state regulator that approved the Line 3 project last year, will not have to consider additional environmental issues. Line 3 is part of Enbridge’s Mainline network that transports western Canadian oil to Midwest [Read more]
Oil plummets 6% as Saudi says oil production fully restored
Oil prices dropped about 6% on Tuesday after Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said the kingdom has fully restored its oil production hit by an attack this weekend that shut 5% of global oil output. Saturday’s attacks raised the specter of a major supply shock in a market that in recent months has been preoccupied with demand concerns and faltering global growth. Oil surged as much as 20% at one point on Monday. During a news conference on Tuesday, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister also said it [Read more]