Trade NEWS

Gary Gensler is the kind of regulator who gets things done. That’s not always the kind that serves America best. The chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission has flexed the rulemaking process in a way that has been helpful to a Democrat-led administration struggling to pass laws. The precedent Gensler has set will make it easier for future SEC bosses to play fast and loose too.

Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) has signed a purchase and sale agreement with Orion Mine Finance for $1.33bn, the transaction is expected to be closed in the fourth quarter of this year. Assets under the sale are located in Wyoming, Colorado and Utah. The company will retain its core assets in the Rockies, including Colorado’s DJ Basin and Wyoming’s Powder River Basin.

National Oilwell Varco today reported second-quarter 2020 revenues of $1.50 billion, a decrease of 21% compared to the first quarter of 2020 and a decrease of 30% compared to the second quarter of 2019. Net loss for the second quarter of 2020 was $93 million. Adjusted EBITDA decreased $94 million sequentially to $84 million, or 5.6% of sales.

Equinor on Friday reported a drop in second-quarter operating profit but a strong performance from its refinery and trading business helped to counter the drop. Equinor’s three ventures, E&P Norway, E&P International and E&P USA, made losses, but profits increase at its refinery and trading division. The Norwegian government has imposed oil output limits from June-December this year, backing efforts by the OPEC+ and others to support prices.

Spain's Repsol posted a net loss and wrote down $1.5 billion in assets on Thursday. The COVID-19 health crisis has piled pressure on a sector already hurt by oil prices. The company revised down its gas price outlook for 2020 to $2 per million British thermal units, from $3. It burned cash, with a negative free cash flow of 217 million euros, but expected cash-flow from operations of 3.6 billion euros this year.

bp has announced that it will write-down $17.5 bn worth of assets in the wake of coronavirus crisis, the biggest writedown on the value of its business since the Deepwater Horizon disaster a decade ago. After a revision, the British giant cut its estimates for oil and gas prices in the coming decades between 20% and 30%. It also expects the cost of carbon emissions to be twice as high as before.

India will on Monday get its very own natural gas trading platform that will help discover local market price for gas through transparent demand-supply matching. Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will launch the Indian Gas Exchange (IGX) to kickstart natural gas trading, official sources said. IGX is India's first automated national level trading platform to promote and sustain an efficient and robust gas market and foster gas trading in the country.

CPCL had reported widening of net loss in Q4 of 2019-20 fiscal to Rs 1,637.56 crore, from Rs 29.33 crore, a year ago on lower crude production and inventory losses. Operational revenue dipped to Rs 11,769.39 crore in January-March from Rs 12,765.15 crore a year back. In 2019-20 fiscal, the company saw its net loss widen to Rs 2,077.58 crore, from Rs 213.36 crore net loss in the previous FY.

Rosneft Oil Co. said Friday that it swung into a net loss for the first quarter of 2020, and that it was launching a buyback program. The London-listed Russian oil company said net loss for the period was 156 billion rubles ($2.12 billion) compared with a net profit of RUB131 billion for the first quarter of 2019. The company said this was due mainly to a foreign-exchange loss of RUB177 billion due to the depreciation of the ruble and revaluation of foreign-currency financial liabilities.

Enticed by the shale boom in the States, Occidental Petroleum had controversially acquired Anadarko Petroleum last year for a whooping $38 billion. This purchase proved to be ill-timed and has forced the company to deal with impending debts. Owing to a $2 billion quarterly loss, Occidental has decided to offer voluntary buyouts to its employees, citing in order to slash capital expenditure.

Thailand’s largest energy company PTT announced on Monday, that it planned to cut investment by up to 15% after booking quarterly losses due to a sharp drop in oil prices and weak demand for petrochemicals amidst the coronavirus outbreak. The state-owned firm reported losses of $48.2 million in its first-quarter ending in March, its first loss in four years, versus a profit of $91.2mil a year earlier.

E&P major, Occidental Petroleum yesterday reported a first-quarter loss on writedowns and charges, as it reduced its budget for the third time since March owing to demand destruction. Occidental slipped to a net loss of $2.23 billion for the first quarter, compared with a profit of $631 million last year. Chief Executive Officer Vicki Hollub said that Occidental is “taking aggressive action to ensure our long-term financial stability”.

Spanish energy firm, Repsol today registered a 28% dip in first-quarter profit, joining most of the oil and gas firms whose balance sheets were hurt by the coronavirus crisis. However, Repsol's adjusted net profit for the quarter that ended March 31st was 447 million euros ($487.5 million), beating analyst forecasts' of 330 million euros by a large margin.

Chevron Corp yesterday registered a 38% jump in profits for the quarter that ended March 31st, climbing on the back of asset sales. Unlike its competitors in the market, Chevron recorded $3.6 billion in profits, in comparison to $2.6 billion during the same period last year. Chevron gained from $1.6 billion in the asset sale, which came largely from the sale of oil and pipeline properties in Azerbaijan.

Exxon Mobil Corp yesterday registered its first quarterly loss in almost three decades, stressed by plummeting oil demand and prices. The US-based firm posted $610 million in losses for the quarter after writing down nearly $3 billion inventory. Exxon’s crude production rose to about 4 million boepd from 3.98 million boepd from a year earlier. A ray of hope came from the chemical unit which recorded a $144 million profit.

Indian downstream giant, Reliance Industries Ltd has registered a 39% drop in its March quarter profit, pushed down by the sharp dip in oil prices and lower fuel demand. RIL posted a consolidated profit of $845 million in the quarter that ended March 31. The Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate also reported an inventory loss of approximately $565 million. The firm's consolidated revenue from operations slipped 2.3% to $18.3 billion.

Chinese oil producer, PetroChina yesterday reported to a first-quarter net loss, sliding over declining oil prices and moderate refined fuel demand, as rising oil and gas production. A filing made to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange by the energy giant recorded a net loss of $2.29 billion for the January-March quarter, in comparison to a net profit reported last year. Revenue for the firm fell 14.4% to $72 billion.

Oil supermajor, BP Plc yesterday reported a slump in its earnings for the first quarter, sliding over the challenging circumstances generated due to declining oil prices and collapse in the demand. The British energy giant recorded a net loss of $4.37 billion from a profit of $2.93 billion for the quarter that ended March 31. However, BP has still maintained its quarterly dividend at 10.25 cents a share.