Production NEWS

Brazil's energy and mines minister Bento Albuquerque has put a full stop at the speculations of Brazil joining OPEC. He said, "We don’t want restrictions; we want to increase our production”. However, the minister also said that Brazil is open for discussion with OPEC members regarding possible cooperation. The market started expecting this incorporation when President Jair Bolsonaro announced personal aspirations to join the organisation in October 2019.

Houston-based Chemicals manufacturer, Nissan Chemical America Corporation (NCA) has joined hands with industrial gas suppliers, Messer Americas, to enhance oil and gas production. The two firms have collaboratively developed a treatment, nanoActiv HnP—an energized, fast turnaround style “Huff ‘n Puff”— which incorporates nanoActiv with a CO₂ or N₂ gas application method to enhance oil and gas recovery.

The energy supermajor, Saudi Aramco informed about a new agreement between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. After this agreement, oil production in the zone shared between two countries can be resumed. "With the signing of this new accord, both parties have reached the consensus that now is the right time to resume production in this zone", said Aramco's CEO.

Canadian oil and gas producer Encana Corp has reported profit in its quarterly report. The net income of the company rose to $336 million in the second quarter compared to the loss of $151 million in the corresponding quarter last year. Encana's profit increased with the boost in production this year. Total rise in production was about 11% to 591,800 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) in the quarter.

BP sustains falling profits in the second quarter this year. Slumping crude prices led to a 35% profit decline for the company. "Reliable performance and disciplined growth across our businesses are delivering strong earnings, cash flow and returns to shareholders", said the CEO. Revenue of BP slipped by 4% and was at $73.747 billion in the second quarter.

Cyprus struck a gas production deal worth $9 billion after Nicosia renegotiated a contract with Noble, US based Shell, and Israel’s Delek for exploiting its Aphrodite gas field. The agreement also involves the transfer of natural gas by underwater pipeline to the Idku LNG terminal in Egypt. According to the Energy Minister Giorgos Lakkotropis, this deal is expected to bring in approximately $9.4 billion for the agreed 18-year contract.

In its 31st licensing round, the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) has awarded exploration and production rights to a host of firms. These operators range from new entrants to supermajors. It is being observed that the regulator has reflected a greater interest in this round than the previous offering in 2016. Further, many new proposed work programmes have been secured in this round.

Mexican state oil firm Pemex has reported a decline in its oil exports in April. Its oil exports dropped by 11% compared to the statistics of the previous month. The production of the company also went down by 0.9%. The company is also struggling because of the debts of almost $106 billion. President of Pemex has assured the recovery of the company by increasing the production at least by 50%.

A number of scheduled and unscheduled stoppages went on to become the reason for Petrobras' profit downturn in the first quarter. Consequently, the company reported a drop in oil production by 3.5%. The production declined to about 2.4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day attributed by the maintenance work and other interruptions at platforms and FPSO units in January and February.

ONGC Chairman and Managing Director informed that the oil major registered a record 6.5% hike in natural gas production in the fiscal year ended March 31. ONGC’s natural gas production peaked to 25.9 billion cubic meters in 2018. Total production from ONGC-operated nomination fields, NELP blocks and joint venture assets increased to 25.819 BCM in 2018-19 in comparison to 24.61 BCM output in the previous fiscal.

A Bloomberg report published on Tuesday reported that OPEC has warned US bankers against the NOPEC bill currently under debate in US Congress. Sources quoted UAE oil minister saying that if the NOPEC bill passed and made OPEC members prone to U.S. anti-cartel legislation, the group would first break up and then, every member would lift individual production to the maximum.

Croatia’s multinational energy firm INA has announced that its largest refinery will undergo a planned maintenance from January to mid-April 2019. The plant, which is located in the northern Adriatic port of Rijeka, has a capacity of 100,000 barrels per day (bpd). INA also owns a 60,000 bpd- refinery in Sisak.

The coal bed methane (CBM) block of India’s Reliance Industries suffered from under production due to operational issues and poor pipeline connectivity. The company’s CBM block of Madhya Pradesh had production shrink of 0.94 mmscmd in July-September from 1 mmscmd in April-June. RIL’s KG-D6 block is also depleting including Focus Energy’s Rajasthan block. Meanwhile, the monthly report of oil ministry states decrement in natural gas output of India by 1%.

According to the sources, India’s energy major, Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) went on to increase its production to about 70 million standard cubic meters per day (mmscmd). The increase in domestic output will help the firm in reducing the imports. Corresponding November last year the company produced 64 mmscmd and this year the production saw a great improvement. ONGC is making efforts to bring new fields into production.

The chairman of India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) informed that the company is planning to enhance the oil and gas output from old and matured fields. For this, the firm is looking for enhanced oil recovery techniques and production enhancement contracts (PECs). The service providers will have to bid incremental production profile and maintenance profile for base oil production, informed the Chairman.

ADNOC has taken an important step towards the execution of its 2030 smart growth strategy by investing $1.4 billion in its Bu Hasa field. This investment is to develop and expand the field which in return will increase its crude oil production capacity to 650,000 bpd. ADNOC Onshore, subsidiary of ADNOC operates the field and has awarded EPC contract to Tecnicas Reunidas SA.

Saudi Arabia has to deal with Trump’s criticism after announcing its plan to lower oil production on Monday. In a tweet, President Trump said “Hopefully, Saudi Arabia and OPEC will not be cutting oil production. Oil prices should be much lower based on supply!” Energy Minister of Saudi Arabia informed that OPEC and its allies will now reverse half the increase in oil output that was planned initially this year.

According to sources, energy giant Total SA’s subsidiary in the Republic of Congo has surpassed the oil production expectations. The general manager of Total E&P Congo informed that the company is presently pumping 200,000 bpd in the Central African nation. The general manager said that “Its production is far more than what we had anticipated,” The nation wants to target 65% increase in the total production this year.