International Petroleum Finance articles from September 2006

International Petroleum Finance archives from September 2006

The song remains the same.
September 1, 2006... Discussions at last month's Offshore Northern Seas conference in Norway covered a broad range of topics, but two very familiar themes kept cropping up--access to resources and costs. The global oil and gas industry may be benefiting from $70...

Total talks up output renaissance.
September 1, 2006... Total and production growth have gone almost hand in hand in recent years, with the company adding nearly half a million barrels of oil equivalent per day of net new volumes between 2000 and 2004 as it sustained an impressive average annual...

Big oil's best can't catch Marathon man.
September 1, 2006... Investors in Marathon Oil have had plenty to smile about in recent years. Over the past five years, Marathon's share price has appreciated 175% versus five-year growth of just 10% for the Standard & Poor's 500 index. But its outperformance...

LNG reemerges in PNG gas planning.
September 1, 2006... Australian independent Oil Search has had a topsy-turvy few weeks in its attempts to develop and monetize what it estimates are at least 25 trillion cubic feet (708 billion cubic meters) of gas in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. Within weeks...

Norsk Hydro looks to Shtokman and beyond.
September 1, 2006... Norway's Norsk Hydro has undergone some serious changes in recent years, divesting its fertilizer business to concentrate on petroleum and aluminum, and making a big--and expensive--splash in the US Gulf with its $2.56 billion acquisition of...

Transparency issues cloud Kazakh IPO.
September 1, 2006... Encouraged by this summer's successful flotation of Russian oil giant Rosneft, the upstream arm of Kazakhstan's state-owned Kazmunaigas (KMG) is preparing to debut on the London Stock Exchange. KMG E&P, which is 88% owned by its parent and was...

Shell still wrestling with the Big Cats.
September 1, 2006... Royal Dutch Shell has a new name in charge of its exploration program, but the challenges it is facing in executing that program remain largely the same. The company has in recent years been focusing on its so-called "Big Cat" prospects as part...

"D" word still the key to Exxon Mobil strategy.(Interview)
September 1, 2006... Since Rex Tillerson took over as chairman and chief executive at Dallas-based Exxon Mobil at the start of the year oil prices have hit new highs and the leading supermajor has rung up record quarterly earnings. Last month, Tillerson spoke to...

Chevron awards Angola contract.
September 1, 2006... Chevron is gearing up for its next major Angolan oilfield development after awarding a $1.27 billion contract to Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. to build the world's biggest drilling and production platform by May 2009. Daewoo...

Top spot for Gazprom.
September 1, 2006... Russian gas giant Gazprom is set to take the top spot on the Morgan Stanley's much-followed emerging markets stock index, which serves as the compass for funds representing trillions of dollars of investments. In a long-anticipated...

Snohvit oil under study.
September 1, 2006... Norway's Statoil and its partners in the Snohvit LNG development in the Barents Sea are studying the feasibility of drilling an appraisal well to test a thin oil layer that lies beneath the field's main gas reservoirs. The original Snohvit...

Lukoil weighs Kharyaga stake.
September 1, 2006... Russian major Lukoil is reassessing the possibility of exercising its option to take a 20% stake in the Kharyaga oil project operated by France's Total in the Timan-Pechora oil province of northern Russia. "We are evaluating the project...

BP faces Alaska lawsuit.
September 1, 2006... Shareholders have filed a lawsuit against top executives of BP accusing them of letting down investors by failing to repair a pipeline that resulted in the partial shutdown of the giant Prudhoe Bay oil field in Alaska (IPF Aug., p1). The...

Lyondell buys out Citgo.
September 1, 2006... Petroleos de Venezuela (PDV) has agreed to sell its stake in a Houston refinery to joint venture partner Lyondell Chemical, according to Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez. "PDV will receive for this sale $1.314 billion in cash that will go...

Chevron hits jackpot.
September 1, 2006... Chevron has opened the door to the development of billions of barrels of new oil reserves in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico with a successful production test at its Jack discovery. Chevron said Jack sustained a flow rate of more than 6,000 b/d of...

Big bill in Bolivia.
September 1, 2006... Big Oil has begun dealing with a bigger tax bill in Bolivia, one of the consequences of the Andean country's nationalization of its hydrocarbons industry earlier this year. Brazil's Petrobras, Total and Repsol YPF subsidiary Andina paid...

ONGC, Sinopec go Colombian.
September 1, 2006... India's Oil & Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) and China's Sinopec have teamed up to acquire a 50% stake in Omimex de Colombia, a subsidiary of US independent Omimex Resources. Each will invest $400 million for a 25% stake in the company. Omimex...

Woodside makes Gulf bid.
September 1, 2006... Australian independent Woodside Petroleum has made an unsolicited bid for New Orleans-based Energy Partners Ltd. with the aim of boosting its production performance by increasing its exposure to the Gulf of Mexico. Woodside made the Aug....

Conoco eyes Korean refiner.
September 1, 2006... Abu Dhabi investment group International Petroleum Investment Co. (Ipic) has confirmed it is looking to sell a chunk of its stake in South Korean refiner Hyundai Oilbank, with US major ConocoPhillips the leading contender. "We are talking to a...

Pertamina's downstream drive.
September 1, 2006... Indonesia's state-owned Pertamina has announced plans to spend $10 billion-$11 billion on boosting its downstream sector over the next five years. In all, Pertamina's upstream and downstream investments will total $18 billion over that period,...

Drop in crude price sees oil equities take beating in August.(EOUITY MARKETS)
September 1, 2006... Oil prices continue to hover around $70 per barrel, but when prices, at times, have approached $80 over the past few months, current oil prices seem almost low. Consequently, oil equities took a beating in August, with Repsol YPF the lone...

GCC petrodollars underwriting regional project boom.(EMERGING MARKETS)
September 1, 2006... The oil-fueled revenue windfall of the six oil-rich Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries has led to an investment boom where $1 trillion worth of projects, mostly in infrastructure, are either under way or planned, according to the...