Gulf NEWS

BPCL, India second-biggest state refiner, on an average buys two million barrels of Russian Urals every month on a delivered basis, where the seller arranges for insurance of the cargo and ships

BPCL, India's second-biggest state refiner, on an average buys two million barrels of Russian Urals every month on a delivered basis

Sweet crude grades from the U.S. Gulf Coast have seen increased interest from Asian buyers in recent weeks, as many refiners in the world’s largest oil-importing region are purchasing more of the sweeter crude varieties, energy analytics firm Vortexa says. Asian refiners are looking for more crude of the sweeter variety as high energy costs are making sour crude processing more expensive. The high cost of hydrogen, which is used to remove the sulfur from the sour grades in diesel hydrocrackers, has risen in recent months amid the natural gas crunch in Europe and Asia.

As U.S. oil companies show a new brand of fiscal discipline even as oil prices continue to climb, oil companies spent nearly $192 million on drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Oil prices ended largely unchanged on Tuesday as tropical storm Nicholas brought heavy rain and power outages in Texas but caused less damage to U.S. energy infrastructure than Hurricane Ida caused earlier this month. Brent crude settled up 9cents to$73.60 a barrel after hitting a session high of $74.28. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settled up 1 cent, at $70.46, after touching a high of $71.22. More than 39% of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico's production of crude and natural gas remained shut on Tuesday, the regulator Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) said. Nicholas made landfall in Texas on Monday and was to reach Louisiana on Wednesday, bringing more floods and heavy rains to the Gulf's oil facilities.

A Parliamentary panel has asked the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) to set up a pilot tidal power project in the country, preferably at a cost effective location like Gulf of Kutch. There are three main types of ocean energy -- wave, tidal and ocean-thermal. The estimated potential of tidal and wave power in India are 12,455 MW and 41,300 MW, respectively while the potential for ocean-thermal has not been estimated till date, it noted. "Ministry should set up one demonstration/ pilot tidal power project in the country at the most favourable cost-effective location like Gulf of Kutch considering that the capital cost of a tidal power project is site specific.

The decline in Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s oil production in Permian Basin has left company with so much unused capacity on pipelines to the Gulf Coast that the problem will drive a midstream loss of as much as $750million this year. Occidental said Tuesday that total Permian production is expected to be about 485,000barrels of oil equivalent a day this year, well short of the 800,000barrels of pipeline space it’s committed to.

Oil prices crawled down on the back of not so strong U.S. Gulf coast tropical storm, on Wednesday. After taking a leap the previous day, the news that the tropical storm did not affect the production of the US Gulf coast much reversed the market growth. Brent fell down by 0.4, at $77.83 a barrel while WTI went down by 0.8 % and was traded at $69.34 per barrel.

Gulf-based Cox Oil has entered into an agreement to acquire Energy XXI Gulf Coast in $322 million. Cox Oil will secure all of the outstanding shares of Energy XXI’s common stock for $9.10/share, as part of the agreement. This will effectively terminate Energy XXIs partnership with Orinoco Natural Resources LLC announced last month. Upon completion of the deal, Cox Oil’s production will be boosted to more than 61,000 boe/d.