The coronavirus pandemic has done in a handful of months what even a 27-year civil war did not: it has brought oil drilling to a halt in Angola, Africa's second-largest oil producer. The consequences could be grave for a poor country that relies heavily on oil revenues and is saddled with debts that exceed its... Continue Reading →
Tough Time for Exploration, But There’s Still a Business Case For It
Confidence had returned to global exploration with improved performance and the emergence of several new multi-billion barrel plays. The confidence carried over into 2020 but has evaporated in the face of the Covid-19 crisis and the collapse in oil prices. Short term plans are in a state of flux and exploration strategy is being reset... Continue Reading →
Angola’s Sonangol Starts Selling Stakes in Firms
Angolan state oil company Sonangol said on Friday it has opened a public tender to sell its stakes in some private firms as part of a government bid to privatize key state assets including parts of Sonangol itself by 2022. Describing Sonangol as an "octopus," the country's minister of Mineral Resources and Petroleum, Diamantino Azevedo,... Continue Reading →
Angola Says Producer Cuts Insufficient, More Action Needed
Angola sees an oil production curb by OPEC, its allies and other top producers as insufficient to balance global markets, state news agency ANGOP quoted resources and petroleum minister Diamantino Azevedo as saying on Friday. "It is up to everyone to understand that, despite the measures taken by OPEC, oil producers in various countries should... Continue Reading →
Maersk Drilling to Mothball Several Rigs, Reduce North Sea Headcount
Danish offshore drilling contractor Maersk Drilling is set to mothball several offshore drilling rigs, and as a consequence, reduce the number of offshore workers, citing low oil prices and the impact of COVID-19 pandemic as the reason. "The COVID-19 pandemic and the lower oil price environment are impacting offshore drilling activity. Some tenders and projects... Continue Reading →
Yinson Closes $800M FPSO Refinancing
Yinson has completed an $800 million refinancing exercise for FPSO John Agyekum Kufuor, with the loan drawn down on April 14. The FPSO firm had announced the refinancing deal for the FPSO located in Ghana back in November 2019. The company at the time said it had signed an agreement with 13 local and international... Continue Reading →
New Offshore Acreage Licensing to Drop 60% in 2020, Rystad says
Newly licensed offshore oil and gas exploration acreage is likely to fall by about 60% and onshore acreage by 30% compared with 2019 levels, Rystad Energy has said, as the Norwegian energy market analytics company expects more than half of the world’s planned licensing rounds to be canceled this year due to the combined effect... Continue Reading →
Borr Drilling gets early terminations but also new drilling contracts
Offshore drilling contractor Borr Drilling has received notices of early termination for several of its drilling rig contracts, but it has also been awarded new contracts for its rigs. As a result, Borr’s total revenue backlog has been impacted negatively by about $16 million. Borr said in an update on Monday it had been awarded... Continue Reading →
World’s top exploration wells at risk, Rystad says
At least nine of the world’s top planned exploration wells for 2020 are at risk of being suspended as a result of the combined effect on oil and gas activities of the Covid-19 virus and the oil price war, a Rystad Energy impact analysis shows. These wells, located in Norway, Brazil, the Bahamas, Guyana, the... Continue Reading →
ExxonMobil shaves $10 billion off its capital investment for 2020
Oil major ExxonMobil is reducing its 2020 capital spending by 30 percent and lowering cash operating expenses by 15 percent in response to low commodity prices resulting from oversupply and demand weakness from the COVID-19 pandemic. Capital investments for 2020 are now expected to be about $23 billion, down from the previously announced $33 billion,... Continue Reading →
