Schlumberger CEO Says Oilfield Growth Will Be at Structurally Lower Rate
Top oilfield service firm Schlumberger NV expects to return to 2019 level pre-tax margins by the end of next year, a sign the oil industry faces a long-haul to recover from the latest oil-price crash.Chief Executive Olivier Le Peuch told an energy conference on Tuesday that industry growth will be at a structurally lower rate in the future.
RWE Eyes Renewables Deals as Part of $8.4 B Expansion
Germany's largest power producer RWE plans to spend part of its 7 billion euro ($8.4 billion) war chest on growing its 24.7 gigawatt pipeline of renewables projects, its CFO said, just weeks after BP announced a major low-carbon push."A pipeline needs to be worked on constantly. It doesn't grow overnight," Markus Krebber told Reuters, less than a day after the group raised 2 billion euros ($2.4 billion) in a share sale to fund growth.Unfazed by the COVID-19 crisis, Krebber said that the environment for renewables had improved in the course of the year…
Chevron Diversity Ratio to Improve as Layoffs Progress
Oil major Chevron Corp expects to reduce the dominance of white males in company management during cost-cutting this year, upping the share of senior level jobs held by women and ethnic minorities to 44% from 38% last year, the company said in a statement.Like most of its peers in an industry struggling with the collapse of oil prices this year, Chevron is cutting spending, consolidating business units, and has asked some managers to reapply for their jobs.Figures from the end of last year show that less than a quarter of Chevron's U.S.
Wave of N. American Oil and Gas Bankruptcies to Continue at $40 Oil
A wave of oil and gas bankruptcies in North America is likely to continue this year as oil prices remain depressed and a new surge of COVID-19 cases threaten to stall any recovery in fuel demand, law firm Haynes and Boone said in a report released this week.Bankruptcies surged in the second quarter, including from major shale independents Chesapeake Energy and Whiting Petroleum, as oil prices collapsed due to the pandemic and a brief, unexpected price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.There were 18 producer bankruptcies in the second quarter…
ConocoPhillips CEO Says Surprised by Quick Rebound in Oil Prices
ConocoPhillips Chief Executive Officer Ryan Lance on Wednesday expressed surprise at the quick rebound in U.S. oil prices that slipped into the negative territory in April and said he expects prices to remain volatile in the near term.Oil is now trading at near $40 per barrel, almost double of $20 it averaged in April, the same month prices had briefly slumped to minus $38 per barrel due to low demand as countries halted travel to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, while top producers agreed to pump full bore."We were surprised it came back this strong this quickly…
Largest Wind Turbines for U.S. Largest Offshore Wind Project
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy's new wind turbines with up to 15MW capacity have been earmarked for an offshore wind project in the U.S.First, the company on Tuesday morning said it was planning to the giant SG 14-222 DD offshore Direct Drive wind turbines at the 300 MW Hai Long 2 project in Taiwan.Later on the same day, SGRE said the same type of turbine - launched just last week - would conditinally be supplied to the massive 2,640-MW Dominion Energy Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) commercial project.
Brent Hits One-month High, U.S. Oil Tops $32 as Lockdowns Ease
Oil prices jumped on Monday, with benchmark Brent hitting a one-month high and U.S. crude topping $30, supported by optimism about the reopening of economies and output cuts by major producers. Brent crude was up $2.32, or 7.1%, at $34.82 a barrel by 1344 GMT, its highest level since mid-April. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was up $3.35 or almost 11.4% at $32.78 per barrel, its highest since mid-March. "Optimism on the demand side of the oil equation has helped prices climb further…
Petrobras Sees No Need to Cut Oil Production
Brazil's state-run Petrobras sees no need for cuts in oil production, executives say, as the market for its crude remains robust in China, while domestic demand for fuel picks up amid social distancing fatigue in Latin America's largest economy.On a Friday earnings call with analysts, executives credited the company's strong relationship with independent refineries in China's Shandong Province, known as "teapots,"' for allowing Petrobras to export a record amount of crude in recent months, even as some economies are effectively shut.
Belgium: Northwester 2 Offshore Wind Farm Complete
The 219 MW Northwester 2 wind farm has been completed and is now supplying the Belgian grid electricity by all of its 23 fully operational wind turbines producing 9,5 MW each. This wind farm, owned by Parkwind (70%) and Sumitomo (30%) is the first to use the MHI Vestas V164-9.5 MW turbines in commercial operation. The first turbine was installed in December 2019.This is the seventh wind farm in the Belgian North Sea, which now brings the total offshore energy capacity to 1,776 MW and moves Belgium closer to reaching the goal of supplying 10% of energy demand with offshore wind by the end of 2020…
Halliburton Lays Off 1,000 Employees at Houston HQ
Oilfield services firm Halliburton has laid off roughly 1,000 employees, or 22% of staff, at its corporate headquarters in Houston, a company spokeswoman said on Wednesday, as oil prices collapse.The cuts by one of the biggest names in oilfield services come with oil prices having plunged to around $24 a barrel, far below production costs for many firms, prompting oil and gas explorers to slam the brakes on drilling. Companies that provide drilling equipment and services have been among the hardest hit.Halliburton…
When Oil Became Waste
A week of turmoil for crude, and more pain to comeThe magnitude of how damaged the energy industry is came into full view on April 20 when the benchmark price of U.S. oil futures, which had never dropped below $10 a barrel in its nearly 40-year history, plunged to a previously unthinkable minus $38 a barrel.In just a few months, the coronavirus pandemic has destroyed so much fuel demand as billions of people curtail travel that it has done what financial crashes, recessions and wars had…
Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Turbine Components En Route to U.S.
Dominion Energy and Ørsted have said that the turbine components and monopiles for the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) pilot project have started their journey to North America. The foundations, consisting of the turbines' monopiles, transition pieces and anode cages fabricated by EEW SPC, have been loaded onto the Bigroll Beaufort cargo ship in Rostock, Germany. The components for the two, 6-megawatt Siemens Gamesa turbines were loaded in Esbjerg, Denmark, before the vessel embarked in mid-April on the approximately two-week transatlantic journey to Halifax…
Reinauer Group Ramps Up for the Business of Offshore Wind
The promise of a vibrant U.S. offshore wind business has been long in the making. While questions remain on timing and pace, there is renewed confidence in the offshore wind sector, particularly in the northeast United States (global pandemic notwithstanding). Investment in the sector had escalated to start 2020, embodied best by Reinauer Group and its WindServe Marine unit, which when combined with its Senesco Marine boatbuilding and logistics hub give its an ‘ A-to-Z, soup-to-nuts’ enviable position to build…
Schlumberger Posts Loss on $8.5 Bln Charge as Customers Accelerate Cuts
Schlumberger NV, the world's largest oilfield services firm, on Friday reported a first-quarter loss due to $8.5 billion in charges, as customers accelerated spending cuts amid the continuing decline in oil prices.Crude prices plunged 60% in March after Saudi Arabia and Russia vowed to pump full bore and the spread of the novel coronavirus crushed global fuel demand. On Friday, international Brent crude futures were trading around $28 a barrel, well below the cost of production for many…
New Offshore Acreage Licensing to Drop 60% in 2020, Rystad says
Newly licensed offshore oil and gas exploration acreage is likely to fall by about 60% and onshore acreage by 30% compared with 2019 levels, Rystad Energy has said, as the Norwegian energy market analytics company expects more than half of the world’s planned licensing rounds to be canceled this year due to the combined effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and the low oil prices."This year was slated to be another remarkable year for exploration with about 45 countries launching at least 52 lease rounds, about 60% of them in offshore areas.
Record Oil Output Cuts Fail to Make Waves in Coronavirus-hit Market
The minimal impact on oil prices from a global deal for record output cuts showed that oil producers have a mountain to climb if they are to restore market balance as the coronavirus shreds demand and sends stockpiles soaring, industry watchers said.After several days of discussions, oil producing and consuming countries aim to remove nearly 20 million barrels per day (bpd) or 20% of global supply from the market, Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said on Monday.The oil market has barely shrugged, however: Brent crude gained 1.5% on Monday, while U.S. crude ended the day lower.
Equinor Finds Oil at Monument Prospect in U.S. Gulf of Mexico
Norwegian oil firm Equinor, with partners Progress Resources and Repsol, has made an oil discovery in the Monument exploration well in the US Gulf of Mexico.The Monument exploration well found approximately 200 feet (c. 60 meters) of net oil pay with good reservoir characteristics in Paleogene sandstone. This provides an early indication of the productive reservoir interval at the well location, Equinor said Monday.The offshore well was drilled to a total depth of 33,348 feet (10,164…
COVID-19 Oil Demand Hit Renders OPEC+, Trump Actions Irrelevant
Imagine for a moment that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia had agreed at the start of this month to extend and deepen their crude oil output cuts. It wouldn't have made the blindest bit of difference.While it was only three and half weeks ago, though it feels as long as a lifetime, the collapse of the deal between OPEC and allies, including Russia, to limit output is no longer relevant in a world devastated by coronavirus.If OPEC and its allies, known as OPEC+…
Deepwater Acreage to Attract Investments
Deepwater acreage will continue to attract significant company interest through 2020, said a report.According to GlobalData, a significant portion of the acreage available in Q1 2020 is located in either deep or ultra-deep water, up from the previous quarter.In Q1 2020, approximately 60% of the acreage available in licensing rounds either open or scheduled to close in the quarter is located in deep or ultra-deep water, revealed the report: ‘Q1 2020 Global Bid Round Outlook – Increase in Deepwater Acreage Offered in Q1 2020’.Toya Latham…
Saudi Aramco Launches Largest Shale Gas Development Outside US
Saudi Aramco is launching the biggest shale gas development outside of the United States to boost domestic gas supply and end the burning of oil at its power generation plants, Chief Executive Officer Amin Nasser told Reuters on Monday.The world's top crude oil exporter has for years battled for market share with rapidly expanding shale oil producers in the United States, which in just a decade have developed capacity to pump millions of barrels per day of oil from rock formations that were previously too costly to tap.Saudi Arabia fought a price war aimed at putting the U.S.
