Tension in the Middle East escalated the journey of oil prices uphill on Friday. This is the result of a military operation by Saudi in Hodeidah. Brent increased by 7.7% this week while WTI went up and was traded at $58.79 a barrel. Further, US and Saudi Arabia continue slamming Iran for the attack but Tehran denies any involvement.

Talos Energy has struck a deal with BP and Exxon separately in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The company has acquired the Hershey prospect from Exxon and will help BP drill and evaluate the Puma West prospect. "As these transactions prove, Talos is well-positioned to continue unlocking material resource opportunities in our basin through multiple creative business development avenues", said Talos CEO.

Vitol signed a contract with H-Line and agreed on the execution of a 10-year time charter agreement with a latest LNG carrier. It is a 174 000 m3 vessel which has XDF propulsion and is due for delivery in late 2021. Vitol's LNG head said, "This allows us to optimise our LNG portfolio that includes increasing FOB volumes from different areas that we are actively marketing to our global clients”.

The Foreign Ministry of India, yesterday, informed about a meeting of Prime Minister Modi with executives of BP and Exxon, scheduled for next week in the United States. The Prime Minister will also meet executives from JP Morgan & Chase, Lockheed Martin, Walmart and Mastercard in a separate event. Attacks on Saudi facilities have pushed India to look at raising oil imports from Russia.

If sources were to be believed, TC Energy Corp’s Marketlink oil pipeline running from Oklahoma to Texas was shut on Thursday. The southeastern part of Texas took in heavy rains yesterday due to Tropical Depression Imelda. The 750,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Marketlink pipeline links to the Nederland terminal. Phillips 66 was also forced to shut operations at its Beaumont Terminal in Nederland, Texas.

Mitsui has decided to sell its 35% stakes in Australian BassGas project. Rothschild is advising the Japanese company on the proposed disposal. Mitsui's share of output from the BassGas in the year to June 2019 was approx 1.1 million barrels of oil equivalent. It has come up with the sale plan at the same time when Exxon has out its ageing Bass Strait oil and gas assets up for sale.

Oil prices improved after Saudi Arabia assured restoration of full production by September end. Brent increased and was traded at $63.68 a barrel. WTI went up to $58.23 a barrel. Meanwhile, oil analytics has informed about the loss of 3.4 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil output by Saudi. After Saudi pointed fingers at Iran for the attack, Washington has ordered U.S. Treasury to “substantially increase sanctions” on Tehran.

BP has informed about first gas from Baltim field two months ahead of schedule. The firm has achieved an initial production rate of around 100 mmscfd. The production rate is expected to increase and reach 500 mmscfd before mid-2020. The production will be divided amongst BP, Eni (contractor), and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation. BSW was discovered in May 2016 and is said to have the potential of 610 BCF.

Fife Ethylene Plant (FEP) at Mossmorran is operated by ExxonMobil. The plant is having flaring issues and Exxon has decided to invest £140m to reduce it. The plant manager of FEP said, "These planned investments demonstrate our commitment to long-term reliable operations at the site". Flaring accompanied by thick black smoke has become quite frequent which disturbs the residents. They have also complained of noise and light disturbance.

India's energy giant, ONGC has been fined Rs 2.05 crore by the Pollution Control Board, Assam. The board has slammed the firm for violating an order by the Supreme Court and causing pollution to the environment. ONGC disobeyed environmental laws in its six wells of Assam. The company will have to submit this amount within one month of the issuance of the order.

British E&P major, Tullow Oil has made another discovery on the Orinduik license, offshore Guyana. This marks the second in the line of discoveries for Tullow Oil in its Jethro-1 exploration well, the first discovery made back in August 2019. The exploration well was drilled to a final depth of 2,175m using Stena Forthdrillship. The Orinduik Block is operated by Tullow, where Total and Eco (Atlantic) Oil & Gas are partners.

Oil prices slipped on Wednesday as Saudi Arabia assured full restoration of oil production by month’s end, but were capped by looming cuts in US interest rates. Benchmark Brent crude futures were traded 0.1% lower, at $64.50 a barrel. WTI crude futures, on the other hand, dropped 0.5% to $59.06 per barrel. Saudi Energy Minister yesterday reassured markets about restoring the lost oil production by month-end.

India's largest petroleum explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will invest Rs 4,254 crore to drill 656 wells. These wells will be drilled in 52 Petroleum Mining Lease (PML) in the company’s Ahmedabad asset in Gujarat. The drilling activity is planned from 2019-20 to 2025-26. Also, the firm has planned a complete roadmap for its growth for the next two decade.

Ashtead Technology has completed a subsea installation monitoring project for Ocean Installer AS. To support the installation, Ashtead has integrated its Deflection Monitoring System (DMS) services and equipment. “The DMS system proved invaluable for the safe and efficient installation of the ITS structures during the Askeladd and Johan Castberg projects", said Ocean Installer, offshore manager.

The international market witnessed a drop in oil prices on Monday. The market is waiting for the response on the attack on Saudi facilities which brought down the kingdom's production. Brent dropped down by 1.1%, at $68.25 a barrel. WTI slipped by 1.3%, to $62.08 a barrel. This attack has led to a significant surge in the volatility of the market which otherwise was subdued due to US-China trade war.

Fullstream company, Baker Hughes has concluded its demerger with GE, closing a secondary offering of 132.25 million shares of BHGE Class A common stock. With Baker completing the share repurchase, GE and its affiliates lost ownership of more than 50% of the voting power of all classes of BHGE’s voting stock. BHGE aims to revise its corporate name to Baker Hughes Company, known as Baker Hughes.

World’s largest oilfield services firm, Schlumberger has entered into a strategic collaboration with IHS Markit, through its geophysical data solutions division WesternGeco. Through the collaboration, the firms intend to consolidate their data, technology and experience in exploration and production (E&P) and enable access to it through the GAIA digital subsurface platform. The GAIA platform was launched by WesternGeco and is powered by the DELFI cognitive E&P environment.

Pipeline firm Energy Transfer LP has agreed to acquire smaller rival SemGroup Corp in a $1.35 billion deal. The acquisition will gain Energy Transfer the ownership to SemGroup’s crude oil terminal on the Houston Ship Channel, crude oil gathering assets and oil and natural gas liquids pipelines. With an enterprise value of $5 billion, the deal is expected to close in late 2019 or early 2020.