International Petroleum Finance articles from June 2008

International Petroleum Finance archives from June 2008

There are limits.
June 1, 2008... World oil production will top out at 95 million barrels per day by 2020, according to Total's experts. If true, that spells trouble for the French major and other international oil companies (IOC) already struggling to maintain their output....

Utilities outpace majors in renewables rush.
June 1, 2008... Renewable energy-related mergers and acquisitions are mushrooming. The value of transactions rose 47% last year to $55.7 billion, according to a new report by international audit, tax and risk advisory firm KPMG. The heightened pace of deal...

Russian partners pushing for control of TNK-BP.
June 1, 2008... The end of TNK-BP, in its current form at least, is fast approaching. Relations between the joint venture's British and Russian shareholders hit new lows in May and early June. Chief Executive Robert Dudley went public with his grievances and...

Exxon's Tillerson sees off Rockefeller challenge.
June 1, 2008... Facing one of the biggest challenges of his two year and a half year tenure, Exxon Mobil Chairman and Chief Executive Rex Tillerson emerged from the supermajor's annual shareholder meeting last month not only unscathed, but, arguably,...

More nationalizations in Bolivia as some provinces rebel.
June 1, 2008... Latin America's wave of resource nationalism rolled on in May and early June as the Bolivian government took majority control of four of the country's remaining privately owned oil sector companies. Meanwhile, the country's wealthier,...

EnCana's decision to split divides industry analysts.
June 1, 2008... Canada's EnCana is to split into two companies: an integrated oil sands firm and a natural gas-focused exploration and production company. Only time will tell whether splitting the business was a smart move. EnCana's management said it had...

China's overseas investments spark western concerns.
June 1, 2008... Recent high-profile overseas investments made by state-owned China Investment Corp. (CIC) and China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange (Safe), have focused yet more attention on the scale, aims and investment strategies of nondemocratic...

BHP struggles to convince Rio bid makes sense.
June 1, 2008... On May 30, Australian mining and energy company BHP Billiton filed for antitrust clearance from the European Commission in Brussels in connection with its all-paper US$180 billion hostile bid for rival Rio Tinto. Despite BHP's insistence to the...

Indonesia to quit Opec.(IN BRIEF)
June 1, 2008... Indonesia said it would leave Opec at the end of this year. The move, announced late last month, came as no surprise. In 2005, a government committee recommended that the country pull out of the exporters' group. Indonesia joined Opec in 1962...

Shell, Repsol exit South Pars.(IN BRIEF)
June 1, 2008... Royal Dutch Shell and Repsol YPF bowed to political pressure and pulled out of Phase 13 of the South Pars gas and LNG scheme in Iran. Tehran had given the two European groups a June deadline to make a final decision on the project. Shell...

NNPC agrees funding deals.(IN BRIEF)
June 1, 2008... State-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) signed funding agreements with three of its five foreign joint-venture partners: Royal Dutch Shell, Total and Exxon Mobil. The biggest was a $3.1 billion funding deal with Shell's Nigerian...

Saudi refinery projects.(IN BRIEF)
June 1, 2008... May was a mixed month for Saudi Arabia's downstream ambitions. France's Total and state Saudi Aramco confirmed they will build a 400,000 b/d export refinery in Jubail, and Aramco and ConocoPhillips said they will go ahead with a 400,000 b/d...

Queensland CBM gets hot.(IN BRIEF)
June 1, 2008... Two new deals in Australia's booming coalbed methane (CBM) sector effectively scuttled BG's attempted takeover of local utility and upstream player Origin Energy. Origin rejected BG's improved A$13.6 billion (US$13 billion) offer after another...

Status quo at Eni.(IN BRIEF)
June 1, 2008... Eni Chief Executive Paulo Scaroni was last month named a member of the state-controlled company's board by the Italian finance ministry. The nomination effectively ensured that Scaroni would be confirmed as chief executive of the company for a...

Kuwait oil minister named.(IN BRIEF)
June 1, 2008... Kuwait's acting oil minister was appointed to the role permanently following parliamentary elections in May. Mohammed al-Olaim, Kuwait's outgoing electricity and water minister and acting oil minister, was appointed to the newly merged energy,...

Rosneft's new loan woes.(IN BRIEF)
June 1, 2008... Russia's Rosneft was struggling in early June to negotiate a new $5 billion loan from Western banks. The state-controlled major wants the new loan to repay a short-term facility it took out last year to finance its purchase of Yukos assets....

Lukoil profits soar.(IN BRIEF)(Financial report)
June 1, 2008... Lukoil announced first-quarter net profits of $3.16 billion, more than 160% up on the year-earlier earnings figure of $1.2 billion. The company's first-quarter revenues rose 54% year-on-year to just under $25 billion. Lukoil, Russia's...

In memoriam: IPF founder Dillard Spriggs.(IN BRIEF)
June 1, 2008... Dillard P. Spriggs, the founder of International Petroleum Finance, has died following a long illness. After graduating from the University of Texas and attending the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, Dillard...

North American natural gas stocks outpace oil equities.(EQUITY MARKETS)
June 1, 2008... Oil company stocks have been an extremely profitable investment for several years now, largely as a result of oil's steady climb past $135 per barrel. But while crude's dizzying ascent into triple-digit territory has hogged the headlines,...

Saudi Aramco to invest $129b to 2013, up 40% on previous plan.(EMERGING MARKETS)
June 1, 2008... Flush with petrodollars but struggling to maintain reserves, state-owned Saudi Aramco is projecting expenditure of $129 billion on upstream, refining and petrochemical projects between 2009 and 2013, a huge 40% rise from the $90 billion...