The industry group of Germany, MWV said that presently they are not facing any shortage of gasoline or diesel due to contaminated crude oil on Russia's Druzhba pipeline. But the company has warned of future challenges if improvements do not occur. Pertaining to the above reason, Russia temporarily stopped the oil flows last month which resulted in the rise in global prices.

In order to cut the sector's emission, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has decided to make stricter energy efficiency targets for certain types of ships. IMO's Marine Environment Protection Committee will conduct a meeting in London this week. The agenda of the meeting will be to discuss tougher rules on sulphur emissions and other long-term measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% from 2008 levels by 2050.

French supermajor Total has informed about suspending operations at some of the Leuna refinery units in Germany, over technical checks due to contaminated Russian crude supply. High levels of organic chloride contaminations were discovered in crude oil supplied via the Druzhba pipeline in April. Total expects operations to resume at the 230,000 barrel-per-day refinery on Saturday.

In a bid to make up for the supply loss of Iranian oil due to US sanctions, oil guzzler IOCL has availed the option of receiving an extra 2 million barrels of crude from Saudi Aramco. Under the deal, the state-run refiner will get the extra crude supply for every month between July-December. IOCL entered into a term deal to purchase 5.6 million tonnes of Saudi crude in 2019/20.

Australian exploration firm, Talon Petroleum has concluded the acquisition of EnCounter Oil. The strategic acquisition of EnCounter gives Talon a 100% stake in the highly prospective UK North Sea exploration licenses. Talon Petroleum entered into an all-stock transaction in January to purchase 100% of the shares in EnCounter Oil. Talon is looking forward to rapidly expand its UK North Sea exploration portfolio.

The Indian energy firm, Petronet LNG has reported a 15.87% fall in profits for 4Q2019, from the corresponding quarter in the previous year. Petronet LNG registered a ₹440-crore in profits in the last quarter of the financial year 2018-2019. The company has attributed lower profits to the inventory loss of ₹119 crore. The company will distribute a 45% dividend to shareholders.

If sources were to be believed, ExxonMobil and state-owned GAIL (India) Ltd are in talks to form a joint venture in the country. Exxon’s renewed focus on India is an acknowledgment of the rising energy consumption in India. Chairman and MD at GAIL said, “The discussions are on. We are likely to make an announcement in a fortnight or so,".

Oil prices gained in the international market on Friday, over growing tensions in the Middle East which has stoked concerns of potential supply disruptions. Brent crude futures rose 0.3% to $72.82 a barrel. WTI crude futures, on the other hand, climbed by 0.5%, and were priced at $63.18 per barrel. Several air strikes by a Saudi-led military coalition were carried out on the Houthi-held capital Sanaa yesterday.

Chief Executive of Total said that the strategy to acquire Anadarko's African assets is "perfectly fitting" with the company's overall strategy. The energy giant has decided to buy all the oil-and-gas-producing assets of Anadarko and its multibillion-dollar liquefied natural gas project in Mozambique, for $8.8 billion. "What we tell to investors is we play to our strengths. It is just fitting exactly and perfectly with what we announced," Pouyanne said.

After Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi militia claimed responsibility for the attacks on Saudi oil pumping stations, Saudi's Deputy Defence Minister has slammed Iran. On Thursday, he accused Iran of arranging this attack. Prince Khalid Bin Salman tweeted that this "proves that these militias are merely a tool that Iran's regime uses to implement its expansionist agenda". However, UAE has not taken any names yet, for the incident is still under investigation.

Oman LNG LLC has awarded the FEED contract for the LNG debottlenecking project at Sur facility to EPC giant, KBR Inc. The terms of the contract require KBR to deliver FEED services to carry out the debottlenecking project at the facility. The project aims at increasing production at Sur facility. The contract award to KBR reinforces Oman LNG’s commitment to knowledge sharing and enhancing staff competency.

Government data released yesterday indicated that Chinese crude oil throughput ramped up in April to hit record daily levels. The rising production levels at private refineries buoyed up the crude oil production in the country. Refinery runs saw an increase of 5% from the previous year to 52.1 million tonnes, matching the record throughput of 12.68 million barrels per day (bpd).

In a statement given yesterday, Indian EPC major, Engineers India Ltd (EIL) informed about signing an agreement to deliver project management consultancy (PMC) services for the new 1.5 million tonne refinery being established in Mongolia. EIL inked the deal with Mongol Refinery State Owned LLC. The state-run EPC firm had previously performed a Detailed Feasibility Study for the project.

Fear of supply disruptions due to the risks of conflict in the Middle East helped the oil prices surge high on Thursday. Brent crude increased by 0.5% and was traded at $72.16 a barrel. WTI went up by 0.6% and was traded at $62.41 per barrel. OPEC led restrictions are now having a profound effect when US sanctions on OPEC members are increasing the supply losses.

Santos has decided to buy 14.3% stakes in the Petroleum Retention License 3 Joint Venture. It will buy the stakes for $187 million. The effort to be a part of the PNG LNG project is in line with Santos' expansion plan. ExxonMobil being the major stakeholder of this venture has agreed to sell its holding in the P'nyang gas field in Papua New Guinea to Santos.

Baltic LNG project of Gazprom is under progress and the Russian gas producer was looking for advanced technology to be used in it. Now, the firm has decided to go with the technology made by Linde or Royal Dutch Shell. "We've looked at the efficiency of both technologies and they basically have the same indicators in terms of workability. The rest is a question of negotiation", said Gazprom's board member.

EPC giant, McDermott has secured a contract from Petrobras to carry out engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) of subsea risers and flowlines under Phase-1 of the Sepia field project. McDermott plans to utilize five vessels for the installation phase at ultra-deepwater depths. The engineering work will most likely begin immediately, and McDermott will reflect the contract in the second quarter of 2019 backlog.

Italian oil major, Eni has informed about discovering oil offshore Angola. Eni discovered hydrocarbons while drilling on the Ndungu-1 new field wildcat (NFW) well. The discovery is estimated to contain up to 250 million barrels of light oil. Eni operates Block 15/06 with an interest of 36.8421%, with partners Sonangol (36.8421%) and SSI Fifteen (26.3158%).