International Petroleum Finance articles from March 2007

International Petroleum Finance archives from March 2007

Come clean.
March 1, 2007... It's been five years since Enron's bankruptcy and three years since Royal Dutch Shell's reserves debacle, but there are still legitimate questions to be asked about the energy industry's transparency. Still too often the truth of how the...

Worst of cost pain may be over.
March 1, 2007... The multiyear rise in drilling rig rates and oil field service costs looks to be easing in 2007, giving upstream producers a much-needed break from double-digit percentage increases over the past few years. North American independents are most...

Rosneft, Gazprom lead hunt for Yukos assets.
March 1, 2007... There is little doubt that Rosneft and Gazprom are set to gobble up most of the last remnants of Yukos, the company that was Russia's largest oil exporter until huge government tax claims eventually forced it into bankruptcy last year (IPF...

ONGC leadership void should be filled soon.
March 1, 2007... It's all change at India's state-controlled Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) these days. ONGC looks set to get a new boss in the next few months, ending a year of uncertainty about the leadership of the company at a time when the government is...

Reserves data: appearances can deceive.
March 1, 2007... At first glance, the major integrated oil companies appear to have done a better job of replacing their reserves in 2006. Preliminary data show that the top six majors all added sufficient new reserves to replace their production, compared with...

Asia's other NOCs flex their muscles.
March 1, 2007... Ambitious moves by Chinese and Indian state companies to acquire oil and gas assets abroad have not only stirred Big Oil, they have also knocked other Asian state-owned players out of their comfort zone. Japan and South Korea have instructed...

Investigations dog total's new chief executive.
March 1, 2007... Christophe de Margerie's tenure as chief executive of French oil major Total started amid intense media scrutiny last month as he made his first public appearance in his new role at a presentation of the company's 2006 results in Paris. A...

Chevron CEO takes lead in energy policy debate.
March 1, 2007... When it comes to getting Americans to think about energy issues, nobody in the top ranks of the US oil industry does a better job than Chevron Chief Executive Dave O'Reilly. Two years ago, in a groundbreaking speech in Houston, O'Reilly...

Eni announces delays, cost increases at Kashagan.
March 1, 2007... Italy's Eni has announced a big increase in costs and further delays in the start of production at the giant Kashagan oil field in Kazakhstan. Estimated costs for the first phase of development have skyrocketed to $19 billion from an initial...

New CEO has ambitious plans for refiner Petroplus.(Interview)
March 1, 2007... Tom O'Malley knows a thing or two about the refining business. Having built Tosco and then Premcor into leading US independent refiners, he is now in the midst of a similar process in Europe as chief executive of Swiss-based Petroplus, which...

Gas-to-liquids: conflicting signals.
March 1, 2007... Supermajor rivals Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell have been sending out conflicting signals about the viability of multibillion-dollar gas-to-liquids (GTL) projects in the current economic environment. Just two days after Exxon and Qatar...

Shell plans Alaska wells.(IN BRIEF)
March 1, 2007... Royal Dutch Shell has told the US Minerals Management Service that it plans to drill as many as 11 exploration wells over the next two years in Alaska's Beaufort Sea. Shell is focusing its exploration in the Camden Bay area, between...

Eni buys Congo assets.(IN BRIEF)
March 1, 2007... Italy's Eni said it will pay $1.4 billion for a large portion of French independent Maurel & Prom's (M & P) portfolio in Congo (Brazzaville). The transaction covers onshore assets holding roughly 126 million boe of proven and probable...

Aramco boosts reserves.(IN BRIEF)
March 1, 2007... Saudi Aramco has said it added 3.6 billion bbl of reserves in 2006, achieving a reserve replacement rate of 106% and thereby beating its target for the year. "On the reserves side, the company exceeded its target of replacing liquid...

Pemex posts rare profit.(IN BRIEF)(Financial report)
March 1, 2007... Mexico's Pemex has registered its first full-year net profit in almost a decade, despite suffering a steep decline in production at its offshore Cantarell field during the fourth quarter. For the first time since 1998, the state oil company...

Power giant to go private.(IN BRIEF)
March 1, 2007... TXU, the Dallas-based electricity generator, distributor and retailer is going private in the largest leveraged buyout to date. The deal carries a value of $45 billion--including $13 billion in debt assumption--and was put together by...

Kufpec ready for IPO.(IN BRIEF)
March 1, 2007... The head of Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co. (Kufpec), a unit of Kuwait Petroleum, said the company is meeting its growth targets and has high hopes for a successful initial public offering (IPO) in the second quarter of this year. ...

BP buys refinery stake.(IN BRIEF)
March 1, 2007... BP is buying Chevron's 31% stake in the 400,000 barrel per day Nerefco refinery in Rotterdam for $900 million, raising its ownership of the plant to 100%. The deal represents the UK supermajor's first purchase of European refining capacity in...

'Gas Opec' meeting planned.(IN BRIEF)
March 1, 2007... At least five major gas producers, plus host nation Qatar, are likely to attend the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) in Doha in April, according to Qatari oil ministry officials. The upcoming GECF meeting comes amid recurring speculation...

Indonesia hails oil find.(IN BRIEF)
March 1, 2007... Jakarta and Korean National Oil Corp. (KNOC) have sent out mixed messages over a potentially huge oil discovery. The find--in the Wokam Block, offshore Southern Papua--is potentially the largest Indonesian oil find since Exxon Mobil's Cepu...

Exxon exits Angola LNG.(IN BRIEF)
March 1, 2007... Exxon Mobil has sold its stake in the Angola LNG project, transferring its minority shareholding to state-run Sonangol. "We have been aware for some time that Sonangol has been interested in increasing their participating interest in the...

Japanese deal for PDV.(IN BRIEF)
March 1, 2007... Japanese trading houses Mitsui and Marubeni have signed a 15-year deal with Petroleos de Venezuela (PDV) to purchase Venezuelan crude and products, marking the first time that Japanese buyers have purchased term barrels from the Latin American...

Pemex sets deepwater goal.(IN BRIEF)
March 1, 2007... Mexico's state oil company Pemex has said it expects to begin producing oil from deepwater wells from around 2012. Pemex--which needs deepwater projects to compensate for falling output at its huge but declining Cantarell field--has...

Chinese market meltdown hits oil shares in February.(EQUITY MARKETS)(Industry overview)
March 1, 2007... Oil equities were not immune to the massive Feb. 27 sell-off that was sparked by the Chinese stock market meltdown. After climbing for most of the second half of the month, oil stocks gave up those gains and more as the 8.8% drop in the...

Iraq's draft oil law consolidates ethnic divisions.(EMERGING MARKETS)
March 1, 2007... Iraq's draft petroleum law, recently approved by the cabinet, claims to be fair, clear and efficient. If only that were true. The bill, which has to be approved by parliament before coming into force, emerged after a series of compromises and...