International Petroleum Finance articles from July 2007

International Petroleum Finance archives from July 2007

Bloom off biofuels?
July 1, 2007... As governments around the world mandate greater use of biofuels in road transportation, the rush to greener fuels is on. Among the oil majors, BP currently appears best-positioned for the biofuels era, recently announcing two new investments in...

Refining: golden age or flash in the Pan?
July 1, 2007... Although the project is being spearheaded by an industry veteran with impeccable credentials, recently unveiled plans to build the first new oil refinery in the US in more than 30 years have mostly elicited reactions of disbelief and...

Gazprom makes BP offer it can't refuse.
July 1, 2007... Faced with a Godfather-style offer it could not refuse, BP has tried to put a positive spin on the sale of the TNK-BP joint venture's controlling stake in East Siberia's massive Kovykta gas field to Russia's state-owned gas giant Gazprom. But...

Majors to Chavez: enough is enough.
July 1, 2007... The power struggle between Western oil companies and countries with large hydrocarbon resources has followed a fairly predictable pattern in the last few years. Almost without exception, Western companies have ceded control of projects and...

Insider Sharma gets top job at India's ONGC.
July 1, 2007... India has filled a leadership void at Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC), appointing an insider who headed the state-owned company on an interim basis for 14 months after apparently failing to attract qualified candidates from the private sector....

Repsol mulls sale of big chunk of YPF.
July 1, 2007... In a move aimed at reducing its heavy exposure to politically and economically volatile Latin America, Spain's Repsol YPF is preparing to shed a big chunk of its wholly owned Argentine subsidiary YPF through a private sale and a public stock...

Apache reaps benefits of overseas expansion.
July 1, 2007... Apache has long been recognized as one of the savviest players in the mergers and acquisitions arena, but the US independent also wants the world to know that it is no slouch with the drillbit. In particular, it is drawing attention to the...

Partnerships play growing role in US M & A.
July 1, 2007... The emergence of upstream master limited partnerships (MLPs) as important players in the US market for oil and gas property acquisitions is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. Anybody who still needs convincing need only look to the $2...

Majors fail to replace their reserves again.
July 1, 2007... Integrated oil companies failed once again to replace their production with new oil and gas reserves last year. For the third consecutive year, reserve replacement for the majors fell below 100%, according to an analysis by US investment...

New players snap up global energy assets.
July 1, 2007... Many of this year's biggest oil and gas acquisitions have involved buyers that have little name recognition in the industry or at least are not primarily associated in most people's minds with energy investment. International conglomerates,...

Gasoline rationing triggers riots in Iran.
July 1, 2007... Iran's decision to ration gasoline caused a violent reaction last month when irate motorists demonstrated their opposition to the move by torching service stations across the country. But, with domestic consumption of gasoline rising 10%/yr and...

ConocoPhillips shifts emphasis to organic growth.(Interview)
July 1, 2007... Jim Mulva has presided over a series of transformational mergers and acquisitions in recent years. As CEO of Phillips he brought Arco Alaska and independent refiner Tosco into the fold before he and Conoco's Archie Dunham put the ConocoPhillips...

Oil sands project advances.(IN BRIEF)
July 1, 2007... Petro-Canada and its partners have unveiled plans to spend C$26.2 billion (US$24.7 billion) on the Fort Hills oil sands project in Alberta. When both phases of the project are on line in 2015, Fort Hills is expected to produce up to 280,000 b/d...

Chevron faces Tahiti delay.(IN BRIEF)
July 1, 2007... Chevron has said its Tahiti project in the US Gulf of Mexico--one of a trio of big deepwater developments expected to drive the US major's production growth in the next few years--will face unspecified delays. The delays are the result of...

Mozambique upstream round.(IN BRIEF)
July 1, 2007... Mozambique is preparing to launch an upstream licensing round by the end of 2007, focusing on oil and gas exploration blocks in the southern province of Inhambane, according to the country's mineral resources minister, Esperanca Bias. Bias...

Total starts up Rosa.(IN BRIEF)
July 1, 2007... French major Total has started oil production from the Rosa field offshore Angola, enabling the company to maintain output of 500,000 b/d from deepwater Block 17. The block is one of four that have transformed Angola into the world's...

Kuwaiti minister resigns.(IN BRIEF)
July 1, 2007... Kuwait's electricity and water minister, Mohammad al-Olaim, has been named acting oil minister following the resignation of Sheikh Ali al-Jarrah al-Sabah. Sheikh Ali, a member of the ruling family, tendered his resignation amid a political...

Bolivia takes over plants.(IN BRIEF)
July 1, 2007... Bolivian President Evo Morales led a ceremony to take possession of the country's two main oil refineries from Brazilian energy firm Petrobras last month, marking the end of a year-long dispute over assets that Bolivia considers central to its...

Hydro makes India debut.(IN BRIEF)
July 1, 2007... Norsk Hydro and India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) have reached an upstream cooperation agreement under which the Norwegian company will take a stake of up to 20% in ONGC's prolific Block KG-DWN-98/2 in the gas-rich Krishna-Godavari...

Transocean wins BP deal.(IN BRIEF)
July 1, 2007... Transocean has been awarded a five-year drilling contract by BP for operations off the coast of Angola that could be worth about $900 million to the Texas-based offshore drilling contractor. Transocean said the contract is for a $640...

ONGC boosts E & P spending.(IN BRIEF)
July 1, 2007... India's state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) plans to spend more than $11 billion buying overseas oil and gas assets over the next five years. ONGC has set aside $11.05 billion (453.34 billion rupees) for overseas spending in 2007-12,...

North Sea EOR plan dropped.(IN BRIEF)
July 1, 2007... Statoil and Royal Dutch Shell have abandoned an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) project that would have injected carbon dioxide (CO2) into the Draugen oil field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. The two companies had announced a feasibility...

Reliance eyes US refineries.(IN BRIEF)
July 1, 2007... India's Reliance Industries, owner of the world's third-largest oil refinery, is considering buying into refineries in the US and the Middle East. "There are takeover opportunities in the US and we are certainly interested," a senior...

Oil found offshore Ghana.(IN BRIEF)
July 1, 2007... An international consortium led by US firms Kosmos Energy and Anadarko Petroleum has made what appears to be a large oil discovery with the Mahogany-1 exploration well in the West Cape Three Points license offshore Ghana. UK-based Tullow...

Oil equities climb in June, led by European oils.(EQUITY MARKETS)
July 1, 2007... June was another solid month for oil equities, led by the European oils which benefited from the continuing strength of oil prices and a weakening of the US dollar versus local currencies. Norway's Statoil led the pack, recording a monthly...

Ecuador takes leaf out of Chavez playbook.(EMERGING MARKETS)
July 1, 2007... Ecuador appears to be borrowing a leaf out of the playbook of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez by favoring state-owned companies based in developing countries rather than Western companies when it comes to investment in its oil industry. ...