International Petroleum Finance articles from February 2004

International Petroleum Finance archives from February 2004

Major challenges.
February 1, 2004... If January is anything to go by, 2004 is going to be a challenging year for the world's biggest oil companies. In Saudi Arabia's gas opening, all the big prizes went to either second-ranking majors like Eni or emerging market players like...

What's next for apologetic Shell?
February 1, 2004... Royal Dutch Shell's management has apologized for its poor handling of last month's embarrassing reserves announcement, and began explaining to investors what went wrong, and what the company is doing to prevent it from happening again. ...

Majors face tightening of rules on reserves.
February 1, 2004... More stringent guidelines for booking reserves may be forthcoming in the aftermath of Royal Dutch/Shell's stunning revelation that it overstated proven reserves by 3.9 billion barrels of oil equivalent (p1). The bombshell announcement on Jan. 9...

Aramco profits from lackluster gas auction.
February 1, 2004... Russia's Lukoil, China's Sinopec and a partnership of Italy's Eni and Spain's Repsol YPF have emerged as the winners in Saudi Arabia's ultimately rather lackluster auction of gas exploration acreage. The landmark auction in the world's...

Taxing times ahead for Russian producers.
February 1, 2004... Trying times lie ahead for Russia's oil companies, with Moscow planning to increase the tax burden on the petroleum sector as part of its general policy of cajoling the country's so-called oligarchs into greater cooperation with the state....

Caracas gives PDV the cash for growth.
February 1, 2004... Venezuelan authorities have unveiled a $15.2 billion budget for state oil giant Petroleos de Venezuela (PDV) in 2004 with the aim of boosting production to 3.8 million barrels per day. That's a fairly modest goal if you believe the government,...

US merchants disagree on roadmap for recovery.
February 1, 2004... In the days when Enron reigned as master of the merchant energy universe, the common mantra among its North American competitors was: "We're doing the same things as Enron, only better." Today, the survivors of the US energy merchant...

New reports shed light on Angola's oil money.
February 1, 2004... Unraveling Angola's opaque oil finances is almost an industry in itself these days, as is criticism of the government' flawed accounting of oil revenue flows and expenditures. Yet the more the data is pored over, the less things seem to add up....

Apache sets sights on fresh expansion.
February 1, 2004... Until the early 1990s, Apache's operations were limited to the US. Since then, the Houston-based independent has established strong footholds in Western Australia, Egypt and Canada. The UK North Sea followed last year as the result of a $630...

Iran unveils new contracts.
February 1, 2004... National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) has launched a new type of upstream "buyback" contract--one that offers exploration and development in a single phase, rather than requiring separate contracts for each, and gives contractors the right to develop...

Saudis may privatize refineries.
February 1, 2004... Saudi Arabia is looking at privatizing some of its refineries, but wants to conduct market surveys first to choose the best option for achieving the kingdom's objectives, according to Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi. State-owned Saudi Aramco...

Tullow farms out in Gabon.
February 1, 2004... UK independent Tullow Oil plans to farm out part of its stake in northern Gabon's Kiarsseny Marin area to Swiss trader Addax Petroleum, ahead of first drilling on the block later this month. Tullow said it will assign a 42.5% share in the...

UK minnows won't merge.
February 1, 2004... North Sea minnows Dana Petroleum and Venture Production have broken off talks on an all-paper merger, less than a week after announcing they had begun. "Dana has withdrawn from merger discussions with Venture as the two companies have been...

S&P raises Russia a notch.
February 1, 2004... Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's has finally followed rival Moody's and upgraded Russia's sovereign rating, but has left the country one notch short of investment grade, and warned that capital markets should not expect a further upgrade...

Yukos, Sibneft disentangle.
February 1, 2004... Yukos and Sibneft have agreed to untangle in a "mirror deal" that will unravel their ill-fated merger without Sibneft shareholders paying any compensation. The new transaction would reverse a share-swap that saw Yukos give up 26% of its...

Exxon's Sakhalin anger.
February 1, 2004... Exxon Mobil has reacted sharply to Moscow's decision to retender rights to the Sakhalin-3 acreage in Russia's Pacific shelf, which the US supermajor was originally awarded a decade ago. "We would view the retendering of the Sakhalin-3 blocks as...

Alaska gas plans filed.
February 1, 2004... Two groups are competing to transport up to 5 Bcf/d of natural gas from Alaska's North Slope to markets in Canada and the US lower 48 states, in what could be the largest private construction project in history. Alaska's state government...

Premcor buys Motiva refinery.
February 1, 2004... Royal Dutch/Shell and Saudi Aramco's US Motiva downstream joint venture is to sell its 180,000 b/d Delaware City refinery to Premcor for a total consideration of around $900 million, including $100 million worth of crude and product...

Pemex places Repsol bond.
February 1, 2004... Mexico's state-owned Pemex issued some I 1.5 billion pesos ($1.05 billion) of debt in the local market at the end of January, part of a 20 billion peso debt program that began in October (IPF Nov.,p14). The company also separately placed a...

Cairn soars on India find.
February 1, 2004... UK independent Cairn Energy has seen its shares double in value following the announcement in January of what analysts are already predicting could be one of the biggest oil finds of the year. Cairn announced Jan. 19 that its N-B-1...

Moody's ups India's rating.
February 1, 2004... Moody's has now done for India what it last October did for Russia, and conferred investment grade status on the country. The main reason for the Jan. 22 upgrade to a "Baa3" sovereign rating was the "reduction in external payments...

Oil shares off to slow start in 2004.(Equity Markets)
February 1, 2004... After a blistering December in which most posted impressive double-digit percentage gains, shares of leading worldwide oil and gas companies cooled off in January, as concerns about soaring valuations, reserve bookings and weaker than expected...

China's stock market stars struggle in January.(Emerging Markets)
February 1, 2004... China's oil companies were the star stock market performers in the petroleum sector in 2003, but have started 2004 much less impressively. In January, with some investment banks beginning to warn that the party may be over for China's oil...

Oil and gas equities in emerging markets.(Emerging Markets)
February 1, 2004... Oil and Gas Equities in Emerging Markets 30 Day 52 Week Company/Country Asia Latest % Chg High Low PetroChina 3.85 -13.48 ...