International Petroleum Finance articles from March 2008

International Petroleum Finance archives from March 2008

What will Medvedev do?
March 1, 2008... Russian President Vladimir Putin's anointed successor, First Deputy Prime Minister and Gazprom Chairman Dmitry Medvedev, was duly elected Russia's new president on Mar. 2. Medvedev will not officially take over from Putin until May, but Western...

Oil lobby pushes SEC to change reserve rules.
March 1, 2008... The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is reforming its rules on booking oil and gas reserves. Developed in the late 1970s and in place since 1982, the SEC will have its work cut out updating the regulations for the 21st century and...

Big shake-up planned for BP's downstream business.
March 1, 2008... BP's senior management team last month provided equity analysts with more details of the UK company's performance and outlined the far-reaching restructuring program envisaged for its underperforming downstream operations. BP executives were...

Koreans expand overseas with Kurdish, Uzbek and US deals.
March 1, 2008... South Korean state energy companies Korea National Oil Corp. (KNOC) and Korea Gas (Kogas) have started the year by ramping up their overseas expansion, often controversially. Since January, KNOC has acquired acreage in the US Gulf of Mexico and...

Tupi find sets seal on successful year for BG.
March 1, 2008... Already an investor favorite thanks to years of steady upstream growth, BG is now the proud owner of a 25% stake in the giant Tupi oil and gas discovery offshore Brazil. The find, which Chief Executive Frank Chapman says "may be larger than...

Exxon's Olsen sees continued role for IOCs.(Interview)
March 1, 2008... Resurgent resource nationalism and the related rise of national oil companies (NOC) was the lead theme at the IP Week conference in London last month. In a keynote address, Robert Olsen, chairman of Exxon Mobil International, made the case for...

Colombia's Ecopetrol invests to increase output.
March 1, 2008... Colombia's state-controlled Ecopetrol has committed to invest $60 billion from now to 2015. The money will be spent on exploration, production and acquiring new reserves. Juan Fernando Garzon, Ecopetrol's chief of investment projects, said the...

East-West divide in European fuel retailing.
March 1, 2008... While the big national oil companies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) are expanding their automotive fuel retail presence in the region, most of the majors are not present in CEE's downstream and are scaling back their retail operations in...

Shell delays Nigeria cuts.(IN BRIEF)
March 1, 2008... Royal Dutch Shell has postponed the planned reorganization of its Nigerian upstream operations. The decision was made under pressure from the Nigerian government, which wants Shell to spend more time discussing the restructuring program with...

Total's mixed results.(IN BRIEF)
March 1, 2008... Total's reserves replacement ratio for 2007 was among the worst of its peers at just 23% of production, largely because of the loss of part of its stake in the Venezuelan Sincor project. The company's proved reserves base declined 6% to 10.4...

Exxon ups spending.(IN BRIEF)
March 1, 2008... Exxon Mobil said it plans to increase its spending by 19% this year. The US supermajor's investment budget for 2008 has been set at $25 billion, up from $21 billion last year. Although some of the expanded budget is needed to cover higher...

Tupi data theft impact.(IN BRIEF)
March 1, 2008... Brazil's Public Attorney last month said the government should suspend all new upstream oil and gas auctions in order to avoid "future losses to public patrimony." The comments followed the theft of confidential data on the huge offshore Tupi...

Woodside ups NWS stake.(IN BRIEF)
March 1, 2008... Operator Woodside agreed to buy partner Royal Dutch Shell's stake in the Australian North West Shelf (NWS) oil and LNG venture for US$398.5 million. In return, Shell will have a "right of final offer" for Woodside's upstream assets in Libya,...

Repsol's five-year plan.(IN BRIEF)
March 1, 2008... Repsol YPF outlined a new five-year plan to 2012 that will aim to reduce the company's dependence on Argentina and boost upstream spending, production and profitability. The Spanish company will invest [euro]32.8 billion ($49.3 billion) in...

Shell settles reserves suit.(IN BRIEF)
March 1, 2008... Royal Dutch Shell agreed in principle to settle a class action lawsuit with US investors arising from its January 2004 restatement of oil reserves. Under the terms of the deal, the group of US claimants, who bought shares in the...

Nigeria reforms promised.(IN BRIEF)
March 1, 2008... Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua last month outlined a framework for a new autonomous and self-financing national oil company. Rilwanu Lukman, oil adviser to the president, said a new holding company would be set up to manage Nigeria's...

Total gets Usan nod.(IN BRIEF)
March 1, 2008... French major Total last month received the green light from the Nigerian government and its partners to start development of the offshore Usan field. Usan, discovered in 2002, contains estimated proven and probable reserves of more than...

Exxon-PDV ruling soon.(IN BRIEF)
March 1, 2008... An English High Court judge is expected to rule before the end of the month on whether to overturn an order freezing $12 billion of Petroleos de Venezuela's (PDV) global assets as possible compensation for Exxon Mobil following the...

E.On might unbundle.(IN BRIEF)
March 1, 2008... At the end of February German utility E.On broke ranks with German energy policy by offering to commit to sell its German high-voltage electricity transmission network to an operator with no interests in either power generation or supply. The...

Rising crude price gives oil equities a lift in February.(EQUITY MARKETS)
March 1, 2008... Coming off a disappointing January, oil equities rebounded in February on the back of a big jump in crude prices. The IPF Index rose 2.2% in February. Oil shares outperformed the broader market, which saw the S&P 500 Index dip 0.8% over the...

End of Indian refinery tax break hits expansion plans.(EMERGING MARKETS)
March 1, 2008... India's finance minister has proposed ending a tax break for new oil refineries. Presenting the country's budget for 2008-09, Finance Minister P Chidambaram proposed ending the seven-year income tax holiday for all refineries that start up...