Central African country, South Sudan has discovered oil in the Adar area of the state, its first-ever since independence in 2011. Informing about discovery, the oil minister of the country said that the field contains 5.3 million barrels of recoverable oil. The field will be connected to the nearby Paloch oilfields, operated by Dar Petroleum Operating Company.

Oil supermajor, BP has awarded a three-year contract to the Aberdeen-based FMS for the provision of mooring equipment for North Sea operations. FMS is a leading independent supplier of mooring equipment. MD at the firm, Steven Brown, said, “This award demonstrates our capability and capacity to support the mooring equipment requirements for one of the leading operators in the UKCS.”

Oil prices made smaller gains in the international market on Friday, ahead of the Federal Reserve Chair’s scheduled for today. International Benchmark Brent crude LCOc1 climbed to $60.02 a barrel. U.S. crude futures CLc1 were traded at $55.38 a barrel. Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve Chair, is expected to address a meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole and leave some clues on Fed’s stance over cuts in interest rates.

Calgary-based Pembina Corp. has agreed to buy Kinder Morgan Canada and the U.S. division of the Cochin Pipeline system in a $3.27 billion deal. Pembina will acquire Kinder Morgan Canada in an all-stock deal, valuing the Canadian assets of the pipeline giant at about C$15.02 per share. This represented a premium of 36.8% to stock’s Tuesday close.

State-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) yesterday announced about awarding multi-billion-dollar contracts for the procurement of casing and tubing. The contract awards are in line with the company’s aim of maximising value for ADNOC across its drilling value chain and reinforcing its strategy to offer a more profitable upstream business. The $3.6 billion worth of contracts was awarded to Tenaris S.A., Vallourec S.A. and Marubeni Corporation.

Aimed at expanding its capacity, an investment of around Rs 74,000 crore will be made by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation over the next five years. It will invest Rs 14,900 crore in the current year. HPCL's Chairman said, "We are focused on strengthening refining and marketing through expansion of our refining capacity, supply chain capabilities and customer reach".

Oil prices went up on Thursday after the drop in US crude inventories. But the gains were capped by the economic slowdown concerns and an increase in U.S. refined product stocks. Brent went up by 0.1%, to $60.36 a barrel. WTI increased by 0.2%, to $55.78 per barrel. Though there has been a decline in US crude inventories last week, the gasoline and distillate stockpiles have shown a substantial rise.

Norwegian energy major, Equinor yesterday reported a light oil discovery in the Sputnik exploration well in the Barents Sea. The recoverable resources from the discovery has been estimated to be approximately 20-65 million barrels of oil (MMbbl). The Sputnik well was drilled in the PL855 licence, situated about 30 km northeast of the Wisting discovery. The PL855 licence is operated by Equinor, where OMV and Petoro are partners.

India’s state-run midstream giant, GAIL’s Chairman, yesterday, informed about plans of spending Rs 45,000 crores to expand the National Gas Grid and city gas distribution network. The investment will span over the next 5 years. While Rs 32,000 crore would go into pipeline laying, Rs 12,000 crore will be spent on CGD networks for the retailing of CNG to automobiles and PNG to household kitchens.

Oilfield services giant, BHGE yesterday informed about winning a contract and receiving a notice to proceed on Venture Global LNG’s Calcasieu Pass Project in Louisiana. Under the contract, the Houston-based firm will provide the LNG liquefaction train system (LTS), power island system and field support services. The Calcasieu Pass LTS, projected to have a total nameplate capacity of 10 million tonnes per annum (mtpa).

Norwegian oil major, Equinor has concluded the acquisition of Shell’s stake in the Caesar Tonga oil field. The acquisition has increased Equinor’s interest in the field to 46%. The operatorship of the field remains with Anadarko Petroleum, with a 33.75% interest, while Chevron owns a 20.25% interest. The deal between Equinor and Shell which was first announced in May 2019, recently received approval from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Oilfield services major, Petrofac’s joint venture Azerbaijani state-run firm, SOCAR has won an Engineering and Technical Services contract in Azerbaijan. The contract will require Petrofac-SOCAR JV to support activities in the Absheron natural gas field, located in the Caspian Sea. French supermajor, Total and SOCAR own 50% stakes each in the Absheron field.

Engineering giant, Worley has secured a Project Management Contract through its wholly owned subsidiary, Intecsea, for the Reliance Deep-Water Gas Project. The contract pertains to RIL’s MJ Field deep-water gas and condensate project. The scope of the contract includes provision of PMC services for the development of subsea gas and condensate resource traced in deep water of roughly 1,000 meters in the MJ Field, offshore India.

Russia is considering transferring operational management over oil input points to pipeline monopoly Transneft. Russian Prime Minister and Transneft's Chief Executive had a meeting to discuss about this matter. Transneft has assured that it is working towards improving the quality of contaminated water. In April, the discovery of contaminated crude through the Druzhba left the oil market in shock.

India's downstream giant, IOCL has planned to invest Rs 25,000 crore in green energy projects. In its annual report, the company said, "Indian Oil has developed a road map and action plan to usher in clean and green energy alternatives to mitigate the risk of global warming". The company will invest in solar and wind power plants, bio-fuels plants, and solar panels at filling stations.

Oil prices fell on Tuesday but soon gained ground as equity markets rallied. The optimism of traders that the Sino-U.S. trade tensions would ease also helped the international markets. Brent slipped by 0.05% and was traded at $59.71 a barrel. WTI decreased by 0.3% and was traded at $56.06 a barrel. OPEC has indicated that the market will be in surplus in 2020 in its latest forecast.

The state oil company of Nigeria, NNPC has informed that following the tender lead, 15 companies have won the right to swap the nation’s crude oil for fuels. Currently, Nigeria is solely reliant on imported fuel. The firm also said that the comapnies that have won are a consortium of 15 companies including Vitol [VITOLV.UL], Trafigura [TRAFGF.UL], oil major BP and local downstream companies.

Indian upstream major, ONGC has unveiled a new vision to increase its oil and gas output twofold from its domestic and overseas fields. The vision incorporates magnifying its refining capacity to three times alongside diversification into renewables. ONGC Chairman Shashi Shanker said that the company envisions to become "A diversified energy company with a strong contribution from non E&P business; 3x revenues and about 5-6x market capitalisation,".