International Petroleum Finance articles from July 2008

International Petroleum Finance archives from July 2008

Strains in Spain.
July 1, 2008... The 19th World Petroleum Congress took place in Madrid Jun. 29-Jul.3. Usually staid affairs--they only take place once every three years--the 2008 edition elicited several newsworthy moments as several of the senior delegates in attendance...

Big Oil welcomes SEC's reserves rule changes.
July 1, 2008... The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last month unveiled its long-awaited proposals for revising its rules on the reporting of oil and gas reserves. Current SEC reporting requirements were adopted more than 25 years ago. For the most...

New deals confirm deepwater drilling boom.
July 1, 2008... The number of new drilling rigs under construction suggests that the global boom in deepwater exploration and development will not end anytime soon. Indeed, with confirmation earlier this month that Norway's Awilco Offshore had agreed to sell...

Iraq offers service contracts for eight fields.
July 1, 2008... Iraq opened the way for international investments in its under-performing oil industry with the announcement in late June that it was offering international oil companies (IOC) long-term service contracts for six oil fields and two gas fields....

Portugal's Galp benefits from Brazil finds.
July 1, 2008... Portugal's Galp Energia could be set for a major transformation, taking it from a small national champion to a significant international upstream player. Set up less than 10 years ago via the merger of state-owned oil company Petrogal and...

Algeria's latest bid round may disappoint.
July 1, 2008... Algeria is holding its first licensing round since 2005, but with a twist: Algiers is looking for would-be investors to give something back--market access for its natural gas, upstream acreage abroad for state Sonatrach, or technical expertise....

Deals aplenty in Europe's gas and power sectors.
July 1, 2008... Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the European gas and power sectors shows no signs of waning, although much of it is being driven more by politics than by economics. The focus now--once the protracted [euro]70 billion ($108 billion)...

Alaska weighs competing gas pipeline schemes.
July 1, 2008... By the end of this month, Alaskan lawmakers will have voted on a proposal by TransCanada to build a pipeline to connect Alaska's North Slope natural gas fields to the lower 48 states of the US. TransCanada beat out four other applicants to win...

Kuwait's wealth fund boss faces down critics.
July 1, 2008... The Kuwait Investment Authority (Kia), Kuwait's long-established sovereign wealth fund (SWF), has spent much of this year defending its recent investments, both to Western policymakers concerned by the rising financial clout of SWFs and to...

Kashagan blame game.(IN BRIEF)
July 1, 2008... The Kazakh government has set a final deadline of October 2013 for first oil from the huge Kashagan field. But speaking shortly after the new memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed, Exxon Mobil Chief Executive Rex Tillerson blamed the...

Nigerian militant attacks.(IN BRIEF)
July 1, 2008... Nigerian militants attacked a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel at the Royal Dutch Shell-operated Bonga offshore oilfield, forcing Shell to stop production at the field, which had been exporting around 200,000 b/d. ...

XTO buys Hunt Petroleum.(IN BRIEF)
July 1, 2008... Texas independent XTO Energy last month announced it had agreed a $4.2 billion cash and stock deal to buy US independent Hunt Petroleum, just two weeks after spending $1.86 billion on the acquisition of Bakken Shale acreage in Montana and North...

Exxon exits US retail.(IN BRIEF)
July 1, 2008... Exxon Mobil has decided to exit the US retail gasoline business, announcing it will sell 820 US service stations that are owned and operated by the company. Another 1,400 outlets that are owned by Exxon but operated by third parties will also...

TNK-BP boss survives.(IN BRIEF)
July 1, 2008... TNK-BP Chief Executive Robert Dudley survived a vote on his leadership Jul. 7. But Dudley, and BP, still face a slew of problems as the company's Russian shareholders, Alfa and Access Renova (AAR), fight for control of the joint venture. ...

Sakhalin-2 secures funds.(IN BRIEF)
July 1, 2008... The Gazprom-led Sakhalin-2 LNG project offshore Russia's Far East secured $5.3 billion in project finance from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and a consortium of international banks, finally providing the project with...

More changes at NIOC.(IN BRIEF)
July 1, 2008... Hojatollah Ghanimifard, the long-serving head of international affairs at Iran's state National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) has been moved to a new role. Ghanimifard, who has overseen Iran's oil exports since the late 1980s, has been named to the...

Origin rebuffs BG bid.(IN BRIEF)
July 1, 2008... Australia's Origin Energy said it was evaluating offers from other companies after spurning a $13.1 billion bid from the UK's BG. BG launched a hostile all-cash takeover for Origin on Jun. 24 after the Queensland utility and upstream...

Tunisia's Etap to expand.(IN BRIEF)
July 1, 2008... Tunisia's state-owned Etap plans to establish an international investment arm, Etap International, by the end of the year. The new subsidiary will focus mainly on West Africa--chiefly Mauritania--as well as parts of the Middle East, said Etap...

CNOOC's LNG deals.(IN BRIEF)
July 1, 2008... State-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) secured up to 3 million tons/yr of LNG after a buying spree last month. First, the Chinese group signed a heads of agreement to buy LNG from France's Total. Under the terms of the agreement,...

Oil services firms outperform other stocks in first half.(EQUITY MARKETS)
July 1, 2008... Oil service company stocks last month continued to benefit from the apparently endless rise in oil and natural gas prices. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Strong commodity prices have enabled exploration and production (E&P) companies to...

Tax change, rising costs, put majors off India's latest bid round.(EMERGING MARKETS)
July 1, 2008... India's biggest-ever licensing round attracted limited interest from the world's big oil firms after the government withdrew a tax break on natural gas discoveries. Concerns about the quality of some of the acreage on offer and the rocketing...