Friday, May 2, 2025

S Operator News

Sources say that the court hearing for Exxon's dispute with Chevron over Hess-Chevron deal will be held on May 26.

Two sources with knowledge of the matter say that, according to the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce, a hearing has been scheduled for May 26 in Exxon Mobil’s arbitration dispute regarding Chevron’s planned acquisition of oil company Hess. The biggest oil find of the last decade, Stabroek, is the focus of the battle between Exxon, one of the largest U.S. producers of oil, and Chevron. The dispute has caused Chevron to delay its $53 billion deal to purchase Hess announced almost 18 months ago.

Targa Resources announces higher Q1 core profits on strength of North Dakota assets

Targa Resources, a pipeline operator, reported on Thursday a higher adjusted core profit for the first quarter. This was due to its Badlands operations located in North Dakota as well as the fact that higher NGL prices were offset by service fees and higher NGL volumes. Targa distributes natural gas and NGLs to key markets via its network of gathering assets and processing assets located across the U.S. These assets can be found in the Permian basin, Bakken Shale and Barnett Shale as well as Eagle Ford Shale.

Operator data shows that Ukraine increased its gas imports on Thursday by 40%.

The operator of the national gas transmission system announced that Ukraine would increase its gas imports on Thursday by almost 40%, to 13,3 million cubic meters. This is due to an increased import from Hungary. After Russian missiles damaged the production facilities to the east of Ukraine, Ukraine was forced to increase gas imports and withdraw more gas from storage this winter and in the spring. According to data from the operator, Ukraine will import 9,8 mcm (million cubic meters) of gas from Hungary on Thursday and 3.5 million cubic metres from Poland.

Serhiy Korotetskyi is appointed as the new CEO of Ukraine's Naftogaz

Naftogaz, Ukraine's national oil and gas company, announced on Tuesday that Serhiy Koretskyi would be its new CEO effective May 14. Koretskyi, an engineer and economist, is the CEO of Ukrnafta & Ukrtatnafta which are both part of Naftogaz. In 2022, he took over Ukrnafta - Ukraine's largest petroleum company. Oleksiy Cernyshov was appointed as deputy prime minister in December 2024 and left Naftogaz. Naftogaz, Ukraine's largest gas producer, also dominates gas imports.

US sanctions on Serbia's NIS Oil Firm are lifted

The United States has granted a third waiver of sanctions to the Serbian oil company Naftna Industrija Srbije. It is owned by Russia's Gazprom and Gazprom. NIS has a single refinery with a capacity of 4.8 millions tons per year in Serbia. The crude oil supply is sufficient to cover the majority of Balkan countries' needs. On January 10, the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Treasury placed sanctions against Russia's oil industry and gave Gazprom a 45-day deadline to sell its NIS shares.

National Bank of Ukraine: Ukraine will need $2.9 billion in 2025 to purchase gas

Ukraine's National Bank stated on Friday that the country will need $2.9 billion in gas imports by 2025, after Russian missiles and drones damaged Ukrainian gas production plants. In the late winter and spring of 2016, Russia repeatedly attacked Ukrainian gas assets located in the east. This caused a drop of at least 40% in gas production. A certain amount of capacity has been recovered. The bank stated in a recent report that although production would gradually improve, it wouldn't be enough to meet the needs of industry, utilities, and households.

Total and Shell back out of carbon storage project in the Netherlands

AMSTERDAM (25 April) - After TotalEnergies & Shell retracted part of their planned investment, the Dutch government announced on Friday that it would invest 639 million euro ($726 millions) in the construction of the largest carbon capture and storing project of the Netherlands. The two major oil companies have decided not to invest in the infrastructure needed to connect the industries with the storage sites under the North Sea in gas fields that are depleted.

Enagas' chief executive says that Spain's national hydro network plan is ahead of schedule

The chief of Spanish gas grid operator Enagas announced on Friday that plans to build a 2,600 km (1.615 mile) network of hydrogen in Spain were progressing ahead of schedule. Infrastructure is also on track for a start-up in 2030. The H2Med Corridor is a planned trans-European corridor that will connect the Iberian Peninsula with Northwest Europe. Arturo Gonzalo, the Chief Executive of the company, said that the company will make a final decision on investment in 2027. Construction is expected to begin the following year.

Ukraine's Naftogaz signs a contract with Orlen for 100 mcm gas

Ukraine's Naftogaz signed a contract on Thursday for another 100 million cubic meters (mcm), bringing its total purchase volume from Orlen to 300 mcm. After Russian missiles damaged the production facilities to the east of Ukraine, Ukraine was forced to increase gas imports and withdraw more gas from storage this winter and in the spring. Sources in the industry told us earlier this month Orlen plans to sell 10 LNG cargoes to Ukraine this coming year, as Kyiv tries to fill up gas storage sites before winter.

Spot prices are affected by lower demand and more solar.

The drop in demand for power and the increase in solar power in Germany pushed spot prices down on Thursday. These changes also overshadowed a predicted drop in wind energy supply on Friday. German baseload electricity for Friday fell 7.5% to 92 euros (104.65 dollars) per megawatt-hour (MWh) at 0826 GMT. The French equivalent contract dropped 1.3%, to 74 Euro/MWh. LSEG data shows that power usage in Germany will drop by 1.8 gigawatts to 54.3 GW. In France, demand is expected to increase by 380 megawatts at 46.4 GW.

EQT will buy Olympus Energy’s midstream and upstream assets from Olympus Energy for $1.8 billion

EQT announced on Tuesday that it will buy Olympus' upstream and middlestream assets for $1.8 billion, in a cash and stock deal. Profits also exceeded expectations in the first quarter, thanks to higher natural gas prices as well as increased sales volumes. The company will fund the deal with its cash and borrowings from its revolving loan facility and 26 million shares of EQT stock, valued at $1.3 billion. Last year, EQT sold minority stakes of some of…

New England grid demand reaches record lows as rooftop solar kicks off

Grid operator ISO New England reported on Tuesday that power grid usage in the northeast United States reached a record low this weekend due to mild weather and rooftop panels. Climate change, renewable electricity generation, and electrification in buildings and industries such as transportation are all changing the U.S. power system. ISO New England, grid operator for New England, announced in a press release that on April 20th, power demand dropped to 5,318 Megawatts. This was after three years of record-lows.

Oil industry sources claim that Central Africa's new FX Initiative falls short of its target.

Two oil industry sources said that six Central African nations who were expecting to receive billions in foreign exchange from funds set aside for environmental restoration by oil companies may actually see less than 500 million dollars by the April 30 deadline. Bank of Central African States, the central bank of Cameroon and Gabon, Equatorial Guinea Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Chad, Gabon and Chad, introduced rules in 2018 governing these funds that are mostly held by foreign banks.

As reserves are at a record low, Ukraine could need to import up to 6.3 billion cubic meters of gas next winter

The former head of Ukraine's gas transit operator stated on Sunday that the country may have to import as much as 6.3 billion cubic meters (bcm) for winter 2025/26 due to the fact that its reserves are at a record-low level because of war-related damages to certain facilities. Serhiy Mikogon, a Telegram Messenger user, said that after Russian missiles damaged production facilities to the east of Ukraine in winter and spring, Ukraine was forced to increase gas imports and withdraw more from storage.

Spot prices expected to rise due to falling renewable energy supplies

The strong decline in wind and solar energy supply across the region is expected to exert bullish pressure on spot contract prices on Monday, while three unplanned outages and two planned ones will reduce French nuclear availability. LSEG data shows that the German and French baseload power prices for Monday were not traded by 0923 GMT. Riccardo Paraviero, LSEG analyst, says that the drop in renewable energy supply will increase residual load on Monday.

Italy pays gas incentive for meeting 90% storage target

Gas grid operator Snam announced that Italy will introduce an incentive program at the beginning of this month in order to encourage companies to inject gas into storage following the end of the winter season when its sites were only 42% full. The European Commission set an ambitious target of 90% filling Europe's gas storages by the 1st November to avoid supply shortages and shocks during winter. The mandate has caused prices to be higher than normal for the summer months and often above winter contracts.

Energy assets affected due to sanctions and standoff between Russia and the West

On Tuesday, the United States and Russia reached separate agreements to stop attacks on energy and maritime targets. Washington also agreed to press for the lifting of some sanctions against Moscow. In the event that a peace agreement is reached between Russia and Ukraine, the potential for a relaxation of U.S. sanctions and EU sanctions has led to the question of what will happen to the disputed assets which were affected by international sanctions. This includes both Russian assets located in Europe as well as assets owned by foreign companies in Russia.

Terna, Italy's grid operator, will invest 23 billion Euros over 10 years

Terna, the state-owned power grid operator in Italy, announced on Friday that it will invest over 25 billion euros (23 billion euros) in network upgrades within the next 10 year to support the energy transition of the country. The group announced that it would increase by 10% its funds for the development of the country's power network between 2025-2034. Last year, the group had pledged to invest 16.5 billion euro through 2028. She said that the goal of the group was to "ensure the country has an efficient, reliable and sustainable system".

Egypt leases German gas liquefaction units to boost production

The Egyptian Petroleum Ministry announced in a Tuesday statement that Egypt plans to lease an German floating gas-liquefaction unit. Egypt, the largest Arab country by population, is seeking to increase production of its offshore giant Zohr gas field in order to meet the rising demand for domestic gas during the summer heat. Eni, the operator of Zohr, resumed drilling in late October after the output in the largest Mediterranean gas field dropped to 1.9 billion cubic foot per day by early 2024. This is well below the maximum reached in 2019.

UK electricity capacity auction for 2028/29 clears at 60 pound per kW/yr

The National Energy System Operator (NESO) announced on Tuesday the auction for Britain to secure enough electricity capacity in 2028/29 was cleared at 60 pounds each kilowatt per year. In 2014, Britain launched a market for power capacity in which it offered to pay suppliers to make capacity available so that the country had enough power. Auctions are held four years before the date of delivery. A smaller auction is held one year prior to delivery. The most recent capacity auction resulted to the procurement of 43.055.07MW across 669 Units of Capacity Market.

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