International Petroleum Finance articles from July 2004

International Petroleum Finance archives from July 2004

Meet the parent companies.
July 1, 2004... Royal Dutch/Shell finally laced its shareholders last month at annual general meetings rescheduled from late April because of the reserves accounting debacle that has consumed the group this year (IPF May,p3). The meetings epitomized much...

Medco comes of age with Novus deal.
July 1, 2004... Upstream minnow Medco Energi is in the final stages of completing the first-ever successful takeover of an Australian independent by an Indonesian oil firm. Medco's target is Novus Petroleum, a Sydney-based exploration and production firm with...

Embattled Yukos stares into the abyss.
July 1, 2004... Russia's Yukos has said that its current operations could be halted after authorities froze the company's bank accounts to guarantee payment of a crippling $3.4 billion tax bill (IPF Jun.,p1). A consortium of investment banks led by Societe...

Property deals drive M&A activity in 2003.
July 1, 2004... The oil majors may not have been active on the corporate acquisition front in 2003, making last year the second straight year of no global mega-mergers, but the high number of asset deals--particularly in Western Canada, the Gulf of Mexico,...

Alien Tort law survives supreme court inspection.
July 1, 2004... The US Supreme Court's ruling last month in a key test case for the application of the controversial Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) has left both the pro-business and human rights lobbies claiming victory. The more likely meaning of the Court's...

Kazakhstan keen to crash Kashagan party.
July 1, 2004... There can be little doubt that Kazakhstan, an emerging oil power with some of the world's largest oil and gas fields, is becoming a much tougher place for Western companies to operate in. In many ways, it is a natural evolution from the...

Statoil weighs response to Horton fine.
July 1, 2004... Statoil is assessing its options after being handed a 20 million kroner ($2.9 million) fine for violating aspects of Norwegian law through its controversial Norton Investments consultancy contract in Iran. While the fine itself is small change...

El Paso's next step takes it back to basics.
July 1, 2004... The US' El Paso Corp. has unveiled long-awaited plans to halt the slide in its natural gas production by leaning less heavily on relatively high-risk drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and placing greater emphasis on more predictable coalbed...

DNO courts controversy in Kurdistan.
July 1, 2004... Norwegian minnow DNO has courted controversy by inking an upstream deal with the Kurdistan regional government (KRG) to explore for oil and gas in northern Iraq, announcing the agreement only a few hours after the US handed over sovereignty of...

LNG scheme gets go-ahead.
July 1, 2004... US Marathon Oil and Equatorial Guinea's state-owned GEPetrol have taken the final investment decision on their much-vaunted $1.4 billion LNG project, paving the way for Equatorial Guinea to join the ranks of African LNG producers. "We will ship...

Kuwait timetable slips.
July 1, 2004... Kuwait's long-delayed plan to open its northern oil fields to investment by international oil companies, known as Project Kuwait, has been hit by a new delay, with energy minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah telling parliament last month that...

Norsk Hydro cuts bookings.
July 1, 2004... Norsk Hydro has slashed by almost 30% its share of booked reserves from Norway's Ormen Lange gas field, one of the assets at the center of Royal Dutch/Shell's reserves downgrades this year (IPF Apr.,p3). In a filing to the US Securities &...

Snohvit costs mount.
July 1, 2004... Statoil has admitted that it could be facing cost overruns of close to 12 billion kroner ($1.8 billion) on its troubled Snohvit LNG project in the Barents Sea offshore Norway. The company has also acknowledged that it would be "very demanding"...

Denmark eyes Dong sale.
July 1, 2004... The Danish government has announced plans to privatize state-owned oil and gas company Dong. The decision follows the release of a positive report from investment bank Rothschilds, which had been asked in January by Denmark's finance ministry...

BP, Rosneft ink deal.
July 1, 2004... BP and Russia's state-owned Rosneft have signed a shareholder and operating agreement on the $3 billion-plus exploration and development of Sakhalin-5 on the Russian Pacific shelf, allowing the partners to move ahead with exploration drilling....

Kerr-McGee ups reserves.
July 1, 2004... In contrast to some of its larger peers, US independent Kerr-McGee appears to have underestimated the reserves and production potential of some of its key producing fields, specifically in the deep water Gulf of Mexico. The company said...

Petro-Canada stock plan.
July 1, 2004... Petro-Canada is planning to buy back 21 million of its outstanding common shares--or 10% of all company stock--during the next 12 months. The planned stock repurchase, valued at roughly C$1.2 billion ($873 million), came hot on the heels of...

Inpex listing delayed.
July 1, 2004... Japan National Oil Corp. (JNOC) is delaying the planned sale of its shares in upstream firm Inpex due to congestion in Tokyo's initial public offering (IPO) market, local banking sources tell IPF. JNOC was due to offload an unspecified portion...

Petrobras makes LPG move.
July 1, 2004... Petrobras is paying Italy's Eni $450 million for its Agip do Brasil fuel distribution unit, a deal which in one fell swoop turns Petrobras into Brazil's third largest distributor of LPG, with a market share of 21.4%. The top two...

Petronas profits soar.
July 1, 2004... High oil and gas prices and a boost in overseas earnings have delivered a best ever set of annual results to Malaysia's state-owned Petronas. Net profits surged to 23.66 billion ringgit ($6.2 billion) for the fiscal year ending Mar. 31, up from...

Cairn raises cash.
July 1, 2004... UK independent Calm Energy has raised 102.9 million [pounds sterling] ($187 million) to fund its drilling program in India from the placement of around 7.5 million new shares. The offer of shares, which were placed at 1,370 pence each, was two...

Oil shares keep pace with broader market in June.(Equity Markets)
July 1, 2004... Shares of leading worldwide oil and gas companies kept pace with the broader market in June, as share prices of most of the world's top oil firms continue to be lifted by remarkably strong oil and US natural gas prices. The IPF Oil and Gas...

PDV offers to buy back debt, wants more time for SEC filing.(Emerging Markets)
July 1, 2004... State-owned Petroleos de Venezuela (PDV) has decided to take advantage of the boost to its earnings provided by high oil prices and offered to buy back up around $2.6 billion of debt. The offer covers dollar-denominated debt in circulation...