Mexico’s newly elected President yesterday revealed plans of constructing an $8 billion oil refinery and to renovate six others in a bid to lower Mexico’s dependence on imported fuel. Lopez Obrador, who took the President’s office in Dec, is looking to finance $3.65 billion for the state-owned oil major, Pemex. In 2018, Pemex has produced less than 1.8 bbpd of crude, heading towards 14th consecutive year of declining oil output.

Indonesian state-owned Pertamina has signed up SK E&C and Hyundai E&C for the $4 billion Balikpapan refinery upgrade project. In the same media briefing, the state oil major also entered into a framework agreement with Oman’s Overseas Oil and Gas LLC (OOG) for the development of a $10 billion refinery and petrochemical complex in Bontang.

Oil prices soared in the international market over OPECs supply cut decision from January. Benchmark Brent crude oil futures rose by 0.9%, to $62.21 a barrel. Since US oil industry isn’t part of the proposed cuts, US WTI crude futures didn’t gain much. WTI crude rose to $52.63 per barrel. OPEC and other oil producers like Russia on Friday announced a supply cut of 1.2 million bpd in the current production.

ADNOC has awarded Zhenhua Oil 4% stakes in its onshore oil concession which was previously owned by CEFC China Energy Co. Ltd. Zhenhua Oil is China’s state owned oil company and is indirectly owned by the Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council. CEFC bought 4% stakes in onshore oilfields of ADNOC in February 2019 for $900 million.

Petroleum Ministry of Egypt has given approval to energy major BP and UAE’s Mubadala Investment Co., enabling them to buy stakes in the Nour gas field. Mubadala will buy 20% and BP will buy 25% of the Nour concession from Eni. After this, Eni will be holding only 40% of the concession. Remaining 15% will be held by Tharwa Petroleum Company of Egypt.

Technology giant, Honeywell informed that Azerbaijani state-owned SOCAR will deploy Honeywell UOP’s Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) technology at its Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery (HAOR). Honeywell’s technology will enable Azerbaijan to meet the rising demand for Euro V standard transportation fuels. As part of modernising the HAOR plant, HoneywellUOP will supply two PSA units, controlled by Honeywell Process Solutions C300 distributed control systems.

US-based Meridian Energy Group has assigned EPC giant, McDermott as the contractor to the Meridian Davis Refinery in North Dakota. Under the scope of the contract, McDermott will carry out Front-End Engineering Design (FEED). Post completion of the FEED phase, both the parties will ink a comprehensive turnkey EPC agreement. The Davis refinery is entering final design and equipment fabrication phase.

Novatek will start the production of LNG on the shore of the Baltic Sea in February, as stated by a contractor working at the project. Novatek is the largest non-state natural gas producer of Russia. The company will be building an LNG plant and terminal along with Gazprombank in the Baltic Sea port of Vysotsk. The plant’s capacity is expected to be 800,000 tonnes in 2021.

US’ second-largest oil producer, Chevron Corp has increased its oil and gas project budget for the first time in four years. The energy major will be spending $20 billion in 2019. The areas of investment will include shale production, and refining and chemicals. According to the information, $3.6 billion will be spent in the Permian Basin and New Mexico and $1.6 billion for other shale regions.

EPC giant, McDermott Asia Pacific Sdn Bhd has signed up Aqualis Offshore for its engineering reviews and marine warranty services. Aqualis will stay associated with McDermott for five years on the contract, supporting McDermott’s offshore operations in the Asia Pacific region. Under the scope of the agreement, Aqualis Offshore will provide engineering reviews and approvals, vessel surveys, towage approvals and marine warranty services for McDermott’s projects.

ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) has received payment from PDVSA towards their $449 million of outstanding dues. The payment of USD 32 million came through Reliance Industries which bought Venezuelan crude oil last month. $449 million of accrued dividends from the San Cristobal field in Venezuela was due to OVL for four years. OVL owns 40% stakes in the field.

China’s Caixin yesterday reported about the revival of a decade-old mega project between CNPC and Venezuelan state-owned PDVSA. The financial publication said that the CNPC-PDVSA JV refinery and chemical project will most likely commence operations in 2021. The $9.53 billion-refinery with a processing capacity of 400,000 barrels-per-day will be built in Jieyang, China. The project will incur 60% investment from CNPC, while PDVSA will contribute to the remaining 40%.

Energy services firm, Wood Plc has secured a $43 million contract to build an 80 mile-long steel pipeline in West Texas. The Aberdeen-based company informed that the pipeline would be used to transport natural gas liquids (NGL) across Texas. Wood said that the contract award reinforced its position as a "major midstream player". Wood secured three contracts last month to assist the onshore oilfields development in the UAE.

Indonesian Merakes project of Eni will start production of natural gas in 2021, informed country’s deputy energy minister. This offshore project is expected to produce 155 mmcfd of natural gas per day initially which might rise to 391 mmcfd. According to the latest revision, Eni and its partner Pertamina will take 67% of crude oil and 72% of natural gas production and the rest will go to the Indonesian government.

According to sources, Royal Dutch Shell’s Prelude floating LNG unit is expected to start at the end of the year. The natural gas produced offshore northern Australia will be processed here and exported as LNG. Prelude’s capacity of annual LNG production is assumed to be 3.6 million tonnes. Apart from LNG, it will also process 1.3 million tonnes a year of condensate and 400,000 tonnes a year of LPG.

Mexico-based Sierra Oil & Gas has inked an agreement with German E&P firm, Deutsche Erdoel AG (DEA AG) to integrate its business with DEA AG’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Deutsche Erdoel México. The integration will expand DEA AG’s portfolio in Mexico to ten exploration blocks and one onshore production block. The transaction is estimated to be completed during the first half of 2019.

Apache Corporation has informed about beginning oil production at its Garten well in the UK North Sea. The first successful exploration well was drilled in March 2018. First oil from the Garten well came by the end of November this year. Apache had anticipated oil production from well to kick start in 2019. The well is currently producing 13,700 bpd of oil and 15.7m cubic feet of gas.

Concerns about rising US crude inventories and widespread economic slowdown sent oil prices downhill on Wednesday. Benchmark Brent crude oil futures lowered by 1.1% to $61.37 per barrel. US WTI crude futures were down by 1.1%, to $52.64 a barrel. The API weekly report indicated a 5.4 million barrels rise in the US crude inventories to 448 million barrels.