Workers have went for a strike at three of Total’s North Sea platform of oil and gas, namely, Elgin, Dunbar and Alwyn over the issue of changes in their pay and working rotas. Though the workers had a talk with the company on Thursday but they still decided for a 24-hour strike on Monday. Furthermore, the strikes are planned for September 3 and 17, October 1, 15 and 29.

India’s ONGC Videsh Ltd informed that Sudan is making its move towards mitigating default on payment of dues and thus, has asked OVL to pull out its arbitrary proceedings against the nation. OVL earlier this year in London court filed an arbitration claim against Sudan’s government. This is in relation with the pending dues from a 2011 breakaway of South Sudan from a project.

The scientists of Texas based Rice University have found a solution to the problem of stable oil-in-water emulsions that are made from oil reservoirs. A magnetic nanoparticle-based solution that will remove approximately 99% of oil from emulsions after all the other processing. Though there are previously existing methods for the same, yet the concern was over the 5% of oil that still remains. Shell Global Solutions sponsored the project.

South Korea’s major shipbuilder, Samsung Heavy Industries Co., informed that it has successfully grabbed a deal worth $370 million. Reportedly, the company will be building 2 liquefied natural gas carriers for a European shipping company. The capacity of the carriers will be 180, 000 cubic meters and are set to be delivered to Celsius Tankers by December 2020. So far this year, the company has received orders for building 31 vessels.

Sources have revealed that refinery giant, Reliance, forced by the shutdown of its gasoline making unit, has cancelled lifting of vacuum gas oil (VGO) cargo from local refiner Nayara Energy (formerly Essar Oil). Reliance was planning to lift 40,000 tonnes of VGO from Nayara’s Vadinar refinery this month, the sources said. Reliance reportedly announced force majeure on exports of gasoline from its Jamnagar refinery this week.

Norwegian state-owned Gassco has entered into an agreement deploy eVision’s proprietary solutions software across its North Sea assets. eVision’s software solutions, Permit Vision and ShiftVision, are designed to enable smooth integration into Gassco’s digital ecosystem. This will enable the natural gas pipeline operator to have an updated overview of operations across the six assets.

Malaysia-based Petronas acquired a 30% interest in Rufisque Offshore Profond block, offshore Senegal. The oil giant entered into a sale agreement with Total E&P in Senegal, which is the operator of the Rufisque block. The Rufisque block is spread across 10,357 km², and lies close to several other prospective oil blocks. Société Nationale des Pétroles du Sénégal (Petrosen) is the other partner in the block.

Concerns over slower global economic growth sent oil prices down for another time this week. Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 were down at $71.38 per barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 dropped to $65.42 a barrel. Data released on Wednesday showed crude oil output rose by 100,000 barrels per day to 10.9 million bpd in the week ending Aug 10.

EPC giant, TechnipFMC has sued Houston-based McDermott International and its newly appointed CEO, Samik Mukherjee for trade secret theft. TechnipFMC has alleged that Mukherjee downloaded thousands of sensitive and confidential documents right before he left his job at TechnipFMC to accept an offer at McDermott. The court has passed a temporary restraining order necessitating McDermott and Mukherjee to return any TechnipFMC documents and their use.

Oil prices, today, recovered from the effects of rising crude stocks in US. Brent crude oil futures were traded at $70.89 a barrel. U.S. WTI crude futures climbed to $65.09 for a barrel. While supply in the US has been on the rise, Asian markets have been showing symptoms of slowdown as trade disputes continue.

Aker Solutions has won more than NOK 350 million orders of CNOOC’s Liuhua oil fields. It will deliver power umbilical systems to China’s oil major. The engineering work will be done by Aker’s Malaysian team while production and manufacturing will be done at its facility in Alabama, US. Delivery of Liuhua 16-2 and 20-2 is set for 2019 end and that of Liuhua 21-2 is in 2020.

Algerian state energy firm’s head informed that the country has signed an agreement with Spain and Italy’s Eni to provide gas. 9 bcm of gas per year will be supplied to Spain for a period of nine years and 3 bcm of gas per year will be supplied to Eni for an unspecified period of time. Talks between Sonatrach and Shell are in progress over the joint projects in Algeria.

Australia's largest E&P Company, Woodside Petroleum Ltd reported a 6% rise in its half-year earnings backed by the effective performance of company’s Wheatstone and Pluto LNG projects. In the present financial year, i.e. 2018, the company expects the production to lie between 87 mmboe to 91 mmboe. Furthermore, the Wheatstone project is likely to add approximately 13 million barrels of oil equivalent to the annual output after becoming fully operational.

Malaysia’s oil giant, Petronas has released its second-quarter earnings wherein the company has reported a net profit, a jump to RM537.08 million from RM425.93 million. Company’s new LNG regasification terminal in Pengerang contributed to the revenue growth of 15.7%. According to the statement issued by the company, it is positive that the group’s performance will be stable in the near future.

In a meeting led by Indonesian President, a decision was taken under which Pertamina has to buy all the oil production of KKKS contractors in the country. This and various other decisions were taken, all in order to reduce imports and strengthen the position of rupiah. The export of 100 million tons of coal has already been planned by the government, a step towards the growth of foreign exchange earnings.

In a USD 215 million deal, Devon Energy sold its acreage in the Delaware basin to the energy firm, Carrizo Oil and Gas. Carrizo will acquire Devon’s 9,600 net acres in the Delaware Basin in Reeves and Ward counties. Devon had reportedly been producing 2,500 oil-equivalent barrels per day from the asset. The deal is expected to be closed by the last quarter of 2018.

Reports of rising crude inventories in the US pushed oil prices a bit down today. U.S. WTI light crude was down at $66.49 a barrel, while Brent crude oil was marketed at $71.96/barrel. API reports on Tuesday showed a 3.7 million barrels rise in the US crude stock. The market has been torn from a few weeks between the darkening global economic outlook and impending supply shortage of Iranian crude.

Leading engineered polymer solutions firm, Trelleborg has launched a new custom-made wellhead sealing solution. In the new metal end cap seal, the flexibility of an elastomer has been combined with the pressure and extrusion resistance of a metal-to-metal bonded component. In static applications, the seal can sustain pressures up to 15,000 psi. The sealing materials are in total compliance with Total, NORSOK, NACE, and API standards.