Oilfield NEWS

Bloomberg) --Iraq is discussing a “giant” agreement with French oil giant Total SE to build large infrastructure installations, develop oil fields and produce gas, Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar told Asharq News in an interview that aired on Saturday.The agreement is giant, and the volume of the investment exceeds $7 billion,” the minister said.

About 50 workers were infected by the novel coronavirus during an outbreak in recent weeks at a production well owned by Brazilian oil firm Dommo Energia SA, two regulatory sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The production well, at the offshore Tubarao Martelo field, has been paralyzed since early May, added the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss private operational matters.

More than 400 people have tested positive for the coronavirus at Kazakhstan's top-producing oil field, health officials said on Friday. The number of infections at the giant Tengiz oil field rose from 17 on Thursday to 401 by Friday, according to officials in the Atyrau region. Kazakh state company KazMunayGas, ExxonMobil and LukArco - a subsidiary of Russia's Lukoil - are stakeholders in this project.

Oilfield services giant, NOV yesterday reported first-quarter 2020 revenues of $1.88 billion, compared to $1.94 billion from the same quarter last year. Net loss attributed to NOV was $2.05 billion, which included non-cash, pre-tax charges and other items of $2.25 billion. Clay Williams, Chairman, President, and CEO, said, “NOV is persevering through a pandemic that is presenting historic and extraordinary challenges to the oil and gas industry on several fronts,”.

As the world economy struggles against the coronavirus pandemic, US-based Chesapeake Energy has cut off 200 jobs in Oklahoma. The state, on Wednesday, informed about the job losses. While half of the job cuts were at Chesapeake’s Oklahoma City headquarters, the other half was lost in the oilfield, according to the Oklahoma Office of Workforce Development. Chesapeake has not responded to a request for comment.

Market researcher, Rystad Energy has forecasted over one million jobs in the oilfield service industry to be lost in the wake of coronavirus outbreak. The looming layoff wave is being attributed to low project volumes because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The oilfield services industry employs over five million people globally. Analysts at Rystad Energy predict that the contractors will drop at least 21% of their workforce.

Libyan state-run National Oil Corporation yesterday informed that the country's oil production fell by almost 80% ever since the Libyan National Army blocked its five key ports on January 18. The blockade has pushed the oil major to enact force majeure on exports from the terminals. NOC took to Twitter to inform that Libya's oil output tumbled to 284,153 b/d on January 24, from over 1.2 million b/d.

Oilfield services major, Baker Hughes Co's adjusted profits ramped up by 49.2% in the fourth-quarter on Wednesday, buoyed up by higher orders in its oilfield services unit. The Texas-based giant saw an adjusted net income climbing to $179 million in the three months ended Dec.31, from $120 million for the same quarter last year. Total revenue rose from $6.26 billion to $6.35 billion.

Iraq has decided to increase production from oil fields in Basra after the production from Nassiriya oil fields were stopped abruptly by protestors. The move aims at preventing the country's export and production from declining. Iraq can also increase the production from Majnoon oil fields to cope up with the situation. However, it is a tense situation as Nassiriya produces 80-85,000 BOPD and this is the first time when protestors have shut an entire oilfield.

Brazilian state-run Petrobras has completed the sale of 34 onshore oilfields in Rio Grande do Norte state to a subsidiary of PetroReconcavo SA. The Brazilian oil major informed about the $266 million deal through a market filing on Monday. The sale is consistent with Petrobras’ divestment strategy to lessen its debt load and focus more on deepwater exploration and production.

Leading manufacturer of Casing & Cementing accessories, Crimson Oil Tools has made a successful contract delivery to Europe’s Drillwerk. Crimson had secured the contract in July 2019 for the delivery of Casing & Cementing accessories to be utilized in upstream operations. Mayank Sharma, MD of Crimson Oil Tools, said, “With the delivery of this contract, we build on the continued success to deliver high-quality Casing & Cementing accessories”.

Pemex has received approval from Mexico’s National Hydrocarbon Commission (CNH) to develop onshore and offshore exploration opportunities. The firm has committed a 25-year investment of $10-billion. Pemex has planned to develop 22 new offshore fields in 2019. According to the current plan, Pemex will invest $330 million for the development and extraction operations in its Octli field.

Neptune Energy has decided to acquire interests in some of Wintershall Dea's oil and gas fields in Emsland and the Grafschaft Bentheim. This agreement will help Neptune increase its existing interest in the Bramberge, Meppen and Annaveen oilfields. This final transaction will take place after regulatory and partner approvals. Its expected completion is in the third quarter of 2019.

Oilfield services giant, Halliburton registered a second-quarter profit, beating analysts’ estimates. The firm’s quarterly report sent Halliburton’s shares to their biggest one-day gain in almost three years. While revenue for the firm dropped by 13.2% in North America, Halliburton registered a jump of over 12% in revenue from international markets to $2.60 billion.

Libyan state-run National Oil Corp. informed on Saturday about the shutdown of the country’s largest oilfield, El-Sharara due to suspected valve closure. NOC has launched an investigation on the matter. The El-Sharara oilfield, which pumps 290,000 bpd, has often been targeted by protesters or armed groups. NOC officials have revealed that the shutdown will cut Libya’s oil production to more than one million bpd.

World’s largest oilfield services firm, Schlumberger yesterday released its second-quarter earnings, posting $8,269 million in total revenues. Schlumberger’s revenue remained almost the similar from the same quarter in the previous year. The oilfield service giant’s second quarter earnings climbed on the back of the contributions from drilling operations in the international markets.

Aberdeen-based Sparrows Group has secured its first contract to deliver rigging loft maintenance services in Qatar. Under the 4 year-contract, Sparrows will carry out the refurbishment, repair, load test and recertification of rigging lofts and contents. The company will deliver services through its newly established rigging loft management workshop within its Qatar facility.

Sources have revealed that Keane Group Inc and C&J Energy Services will soon announce a merger to form a $1.5 billion-U.S. oilfield services company. Houston-headquartered Keane and C&J have market capitalizations of $733 million and $708 million, respectively. The proposed merger is in line with the current industry trend where services providers are trying to gain scale in order to save on costs by removing the overlap.