OIL NEWS

After a difficult year in the oil world, Total is planning to invest in India's solar sector going into the next decade. The French company plans to invest $2.5 billion for a 20 percent stake in Adani Green Energy Ltd., the world's largest solar developer.The share of solar power-produced electricity has increased significantly in recent years, currently at around 22 percent, up from around 10 percent in 2014-15.

Saudi Arabia narrowly beat Russia to hold onto the title of the single largest oil supplier to the world's biggest oil importer, China, in 2020.For most of last year, Saudi Arabia and Russia, were head-to-head in a very close race. In the end, Saudi Arabia edged past Russia, shipping on average 1.69 million barrels per day of oil to China.

Incoming US president Joe Biden has drawn up a list of changes he will make on “day one” of his presidency. Biden has pledged significant changes to oil and gas leasing for US operators, but this legislation would need to pass through the US congress.This includes changes to oil and gas policies made by previous president Donald Trump.

Joe Biden’s move to block the $9 billion Keystone XL project is the clearest sign yet that constructing a major new pipeline in the U.S. has become an impossible task. Even before Biden’s inauguration, the oil and gas industry was on its back foot when it came to building major new infrastructure.

Oil companies in Nigeria have tightened their security amidst several protests in the region. The oil companies' decision to slack off more employees might have aggravated problems of pipeline tapping, illegal oil refining, and pirate attacks in the region. Polices' brutality also triggered the riots and looting in the last month. The rising unemployment rate and recent layoffs are expected to continue this tension for a longer period.

OPEC+ might decide to postpone a 2 million barrel-a-day production increase which was scheduled for January. The final decision for the same won't be made until the complete wrap-up of the OPEC+ meeting, scheduled from Nov 30 to Dec 1. While addressing the conference Prince Abdulaziz said - "Vaccine development was good news but was counterbalanced by a surge in cases in the second wave of infections and there is still a long way to go".

Alberta will be implementing a new automated system, known as Integrated Decision Approach (IDA) which will be fully operational by 2021. It will help the companies to submit only one application to cover the life of a project while earlier, separate applications were used for different project activities. It is operated by Alberta Energy Regulator and the companies of Alberta have saved $107 million so far, informed the government.

Iran and Iraq have started oil swapping under the swap deal inked between the two countries. The deal was signed in 2017, under which Iraq is about to truck 60,000 bpd of crude oil to Iran, covering all transport costs, via Kirkuk strategic route. Iran, from its end, will deliver to Iraq’s clients through its Kharg terminal in the Persian Gulf, in equal volumes with the same quality.