International Petroleum Finance articles from January 2007

International Petroleum Finance archives from January 2007

Rich man, poor man.
January 1, 2007... Royal Dutch Shell begins 2007 several billion dollars richer, but several million barrels poorer. Ceding control of its Sakhalin-2 project in Russia to Gazprom leaves it with a smaller stake, just over $4 billion in cash, and some new headaches...

Gazprom gatecrashes Shell's Sakhalin party.
January 1, 2007... Russian gas giant Gazprom has finally pushed its way into a controlling position in the Royal Dutch Shell-led Sakhalin-2 development on the Russian Pacific shelf in a deal which analysts say should bring an end to threats to shut the project...

Trials ahead for Norway's newlyweds.
January 1, 2007... A merger between Norway's Statoil and Norsk Hydro has been the subject of speculation for years, but now that the deed has finally been done, there are still plenty of questions to answer over just how successful it's likely to be. Although the...

Ethanol leaves big oil with bad aftertaste.
January 1, 2007... Ethanol has been a darling of US farmers and agri-business giants, but so far the integrated oil and gas companies have steered away from investments in the corn-based alcohol touted as one of the key solutions to what President George W. Bush...

Spending growth to slow in 2007.
January 1, 2007... Worldwide exploration and production spending is expected to be higher this year, led by increases from national oil companies (NOCs). Roughly 300 oil and gas companies surveyed by investment bank Lehman Brothers plan to spend a combined $291...

Russians on a roll in new PIW rankings.
January 1, 2007... National oil companies, particularly those from Russia, China and other emerging economies, have made the biggest gains in the latest annual rankings of the world's top oil companies published by IPF's sister publication Petroleum Intelligence...

New plans for rescuing Asia's stranded gas.
January 1, 2007... There is both a lot of stranded gas in Southeast Asia--182 trillion cubic feet of proved and probable reserves, according to consultants IHS--and a lot of ideas about how to monetize it. From mini LNG plants to floating gas-to-liquids (GTL)...

BP scores coup with Oman tight gas deal.
January 1, 2007... BP is set to sign a major upstream gas deal in Oman this month giving the UK supermajor a significant foothold in the Mideast Gulf at a time when upstream opportunities for international oil companies are receding. BP will develop tight...

Russian duo dominates in Libya's latest bid round.
January 1, 2007... Russia's Gazprom and Tatneft emerged as the big winners in Libya's third Epsa-4 bidding round last month, taking a sizable share of the licenses on offer. Tatneft picked up three licenses, while Gazprom, Taiwan's Chinese Petroleum Corp. (CPC),...

Virgin fuels efforts to advance renewable energy.
January 1, 2007... As alternative fuels become the hottest topic in aviation circles, Richard Branson's newest venture may well provide the missing link between technical and commercial feasibility. In the four months since he launched Virgin Fuels, the firm has...

Record revenues for Saudis.(IN BRIEF)
January 1, 2007... Saudi Arabia's oil export revenues for 2006 will shoot to a new record, figures released by the Ministry of Finance in Riyadh show. The kingdom is set to earn around $187.5 billion in petroleum revenues in 2006, up from the previous record of...

Cost woe for Kuwait refinery.(IN BRIEF)
January 1, 2007... Kuwait is facing a cost crunch at its proposed 615,000 b/d Al-Zour refinery, which could cause the project to be scrapped, with bids submitted last month coming in at much higher levels than Kuwait National Petroleum Co. (KNPC) had envisaged,...

CNOOC inks North Pars deal.(IN BRIEF)
January 1, 2007... Iran and China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) have signed a $16 billion deal to develop Iran's North Pars gas field and build LNG facilities, according to reports from Iran. The deal, announced Dec. 20 by Iranian state media, came amid UN...

Hess starts up Okume.(IN BRIEF)
January 1, 2007... Hess has brought on line another big field--the US company's second major project launch in less than a month--with last month's start-up of the Okume oil field offshore Equatorial Guinea. First oil from the Okume B platform flowed Dec. 14,...

BP chief admits errors.(IN BRIEF)
January 1, 2007... With BP's reputation wobbling after pipeline leaks in Alaska and 2005's Texas City refinery tragedy, upstream chief Tony Hayward has admitted that the company has been guilty of not listening to its rank-and-file employees and a penny-pinching...

PwC faces Russia lawsuit.(IN BRIEF)
January 1, 2007... The Russian Federal Tax Service has shown little seasonal cheer toward PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), filing a lawsuit against the international accounting firm late last month that alleges it helped bankrupt oil company Yukos to evade taxes in...

Nations closes Citic deal.(IN BRIEF)
January 1, 2007... Canada's Nations Energy has completed the sale of Kazakh producer Karazhanbasmunai to China's Citic Group after Kazakhstan waived its right to preempt the entire $1.9 billion deal (IPF Dec.,p13). Sources close to the transaction told IPF...

Anadarko sells more assets.(IN BRIEF)
January 1, 2007... Anadarko Petroleum continues to shed what it now views as noncore assets in the wake of the $23 billion spending spree last year that landed it Kerr-McGee and Western Gas Resources, announcing the sale in December of two Louisiana gas fields,...

Pemex budget blues.(IN BRIEF)
January 1, 2007... The lower house of Mexico's Congress has approved a $208 billion spending bill for 2007, which will fund new social programs and decrease the amount of money disbursed by the government to state oil company Pemex. Confident that high oil prices...

Cairn IPO disappoints.(IN BRIEF)
January 1, 2007... Cairn Energy raised just $1.18 billion from last month's partial flotation of its Indian upstream business, Cairn India, after investors grew concerned over the possible impact of a row over construction of a pipeline to ship oil from the...

Santos to exit US.(IN BRIEF)
January 1, 2007... Australian independent Santos is planning to sell its entire US exploration and production portfolio following a strategic decision to exit the region and "refocus" on its domestic, Asian and Mideast assets. "Continued high demand for...

Mitsubishi set for LNG stake.(IN BRIEF)
January 1, 2007... Japan's Mitsubishi is poised to invest up to $800 million for a majority stake in a new 2 million ton/yr LNG plant on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. A spokesman for Mitsubishi told IPF that a final deal has not yet been signed, but the...

Pundits ponder fate of oil equities in 2007.(EQUITY MARKETS)
January 1, 2007... Oil company investors witnessed some big gains in 2006, with Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips and others turning in strong share price performances last year. In 2006, the integrated oil sector moved, for the most part, in step with commodity...

Taqat joins Gulf's growing roster of private energy players.(EMERGING MARKETS)
January 1, 2007... Kuwaiti investors are setting up a new energy company, called Taqat Holding, for upstream and downstream investments in the Middle East and Asia, marking the entrance of another private Mideast Gulf player to the oil and gas industry (IPF...