International Petroleum Finance articles from June 2005

International Petroleum Finance archives from June 2005

By royal disappointment.
June 1, 2005... Another classic oil drama has been unfolding in recent months, with the action split between the boardrooms and trading floors of London, and the normally benign waters of the Aegean Sea, where UK-listed minnow Regal Petroleum has been drilling...

Working in the shadow of Gazprom.
June 1, 2005... Western oil and gas companies trying to do business in Russia are finding it harder and harder to move their projects forward without somehow involving Gazprom. Whether it's a sizable equity purchase in a local producer or a foray into a large...

Shell recovery stumbles in the gulf.
June 1, 2005... The rebuilding of Royal Dutch/Shell's upstream business has suffered a few setbacks in recent months, with the confirmation that the company has lost out on two major field contracts in the Middle East, Upper Zakum in Abu Dhabi and Mukhaizna in...

OMV aims to stay on top in Eastern Europe.
June 1, 2005... Things are heating up in the booming Central and Eastern European (CEE) region as local firms slug it out to take control of Europe's sole growth market for petroleum products. The downstream landscape has changed massively as the former...

Texas tragedy leaves cracks in BP's image.
June 1, 2005... BP is arguably the most image-conscious and media savvy of the major oil companies. And that public relations savoir faire has been much in need in the past few months, as it has dealt with the fallout from the tragic Mar. 23 explosion at its...

Exxon's Raymond takes the long view.(Interview)
June 1, 2005... Exxon Mobil Chairman and Chief Executive Lee Raymond is not one to adopt the latest fashionable opinion, least of all when it comes to the future of oil prices. Ahead of last month's annual shareholders' meeting, Raymond spoke to IPF about the...

Lukoil goes for global growth.
June 1, 2005... In contrast to many of its international peers, Russia's Lukoil is ploughing cash not into repurchasing shares, but into profitable projects, both upstream and downstream. The company has identified a number of places in the world that it...

Repsol tries to close the credibility gap.
June 1, 2005... Repsol YPF last month held its first strategy presentation since Antonio Brufau took the helm as the company's new chief executive towards the end of last year (IPF Dec.,p5). As Brufau and his team outlined strategic goals out to 2009, there...

Hunt warns Yemen.
June 1, 2005... Hunt Oil is threatening the Yemeni government with legal action over its April decision to scrap an extension of the US company's Block 18 concession for five years when it expires Nov. 15, according to a letter sent by a senior Hunt executive...

Korea's SK wins Kuwait deal.
June 1, 2005... Kuwait Oil Co. (KOC), the upstream arm of state Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (KPC), has signed a $1.22 billion contract with South Korea's SK Engineering & Construction to upgrade oil facilities in Kuwait. The contract--the largest in Kuwait's...

Shell, BASF sell Basell.
June 1, 2005... Royal Dutch/Shell's divestment program is proceeding apace with the sale of its Basell chemicals joint venture with Germany's BASF for 4.4 billion [euro] ($5.7 billion) including debt. The company is being sold to a consortium led by...

Dong resolves Elsam row.
June 1, 2005... Danish state oil company Dong has reached agreement with Swedish state power company Vattenfall and two smaller firms to unwind a six-month tangle over Denmark's electricity sector that delayed Dong's multi-billion dollar flotation. The deal...

Khodorkovsky sentenced.
June 1, 2005... Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the core shareholder of oil major Yukos and once Russia's richest man, has been sentenced to nine years in prison. The highly anticipated announcement, coming at the end of an 11-month trial, brings a measure of...

Sakhalin-2 budget blocked.
June 1, 2005... The Russian government has refused to approve a bigger 2005 budget for the Royal Dutch/Shell-led Sakhalin-2 project on the Russian Pacific shelf following an increase of nearly 20% in project costs, announced by the consortium last year. ...

Shell moves into Ukraine.
June 1, 2005... Royal Dutch/Shell and Ukraine's Naftogaz are to team up in a joint technical study of the country's Dniepr-Donets Basin, which could lead to exploration and production in the region. The two companies will study a 30,000 sq km area, with the...

Unocal to sell Canada assets.
June 1, 2005... Unocal has announced that it is looking for buyers for its Western Canada upstream subsidiary Northrock Resources. The move was widely expected as Unocal begins shedding assets in advance of being taken over by Chevron (IPF Apr.,p1). Chevron...

Oxy buys Texas assets.
June 1, 2005... Occidental has bought an interest in the Permian Basin Salt Creek, Sharon Ridge and Dollarhide fields in West Texas from Exxon Mobil for $972 million. The deal is the latest in a string of acquisitions that have made Oxy far and away the...

Japan loans for Petrobras.
June 1, 2005... Brazil's state-controlled Petrobras has signed agreements with Japanese financial institutions that will assist in funding the company's 2004-10 strategic plan, which envisages capital expenditure over the period of $53.6 billion. The...

Tangguh costs edge up.
June 1, 2005... The costs for Indonesia's Tangguh LNG project have increased from first estimates of $5 billion to a new official figure of $6 billion, according to a statement from the project's minority Japanese partners Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, Inpex and...

Santos inks Java gas deal.
June 1, 2005... Australian independent Santos is continuing to carve out a comfortable niche in the Indonesian market, with a new agreement to supply natural gas to state-owned utility Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN) for up to A$700 million ($550 million) in...

Mixed month for oil stocks as crude bounces back above $50.(EQUITY MARKETS)
June 1, 2005... Oil shares posted a mixed performance in May as crude oil prices initially extended their slide from early-April highs of over $58 per barrel before bouncing back to end the month little changed in the low $50s. After seeming to be headed...

Back to square one for Inchon auction.(EMERGING MARKETS)
June 1, 2005... The long running saga of South Korean refiner Inchon Oil has effectively returned to the first page after the judge presiding over the company's receivership decided last month to scrap the work of the last year and begin an entirely new round...