(Reuters) -A Canadian man once employed by the commodities trading house Gunvor Group pleaded guilty on Tuesday to involvement in what U.S. prosecutors called a scheme to bribe Ecuadorean government officials to win business from state-controlled oil company Petroecuador. Raymond Kohut, 68, entered his plea to a money laundering conspiracy charge before U.S. District Judge... Continue Reading →
Stena drillship arrives in Mexico ahead of new gig
A Stena Drilling-owned drillship, Stena IceMAX, has arrived in Mexico ahead of its contract with the Spanish oil company Repsol. In a social media update on Wednesday, Stena Drilling said that the Stena IceMax rig had arrived in Tampico, Mexico to finalise preparations for its upcoming contract with Repsol. Repsol awarded the contract to the Stena drillship... Continue Reading →
Money, Time and Politics: How Pemex’s Wings got Clipped on Production Goals
(Reuters) Shortly before taking office late in 2018, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador vowed to boost crude oil production at Mexican giant Pemex by nearly half, following more than a dozen years of decline. The ambitious goal of increasing the state-run company's oil output from 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) to 2.6 million bpd... Continue Reading →
Report: Talos, Pemex Yet to Reach Deal on Giant Offshore Oil Discovery
No deal has yet been reached on the future of a lucrative shared oil deposit as a deadline expired on Thursday, but Mexican state-run Pemex and Talos Energy will keep talking, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. How to develop the nearly 700 million barrel offshore Zama discovery, which was made by... Continue Reading →
Noble Corp. to combine with Pacific Drilling
Offshore drilling contractors Noble Corporation and Pacific Drilling have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Noble will acquire Pacific Drilling in an all-stock transaction. It is worth mentioning that both of these companies have recently emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Pacific Drilling completed its balance-sheet restructuring and emerged from the Chapter 11 process in... Continue Reading →
First Crude Cargo from Guyana to India Sets Sail
(Reuters)The first cargo from new oil producer Guyana to the world's third-largest crude importer, India, departed this month from a production facility off the South American nation's coast in a vessel chartered by trading firm Trafigura, data from Refinitiv Eikon showed on Tuesday. India has asked refiners to speed up the diversification of imports to cut... Continue Reading →
Offshore Drilling Market Poised for Growth, Rystad Says
Norwegian energy intelligence group Rystad Energy expects to see an increase in offshore wells drilled this year and the next one, compared to 2020, when the number was hit by low oil prices and the pandemic. Now, with oil and gas demand recovering supported by vaccinations and OPEC+ supply cuts, Rystad expects offshore drilling activity... Continue Reading →
Exclusive: Pemex would consider letting private group operate Zama oil field, CEO says
(Reuters) - Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) would consider having a consortium headed by U.S. company Talos Energy operate a shared oil field in southern Mexico, the chief executive officer of the Mexican state oil firm said. Discovered in 2017 in shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico off Tabasco state, the Zama oil field is believed... Continue Reading →
BHP Picks DORIS for Trion SURF FEED
Australian firm BHP, working to develop the deepwater Trion oil field offshore Mexico, has selected the offshore engineering firm DORIS to continue into the next phase of Trion’s engineering work, related to subsea umbilicals risers and flowlines. DORIS has previously completed the pre-DEED scope, and will now work on Front End Engineering and Design (FEED)... Continue Reading →
Exclusive: Mexico seeks better trade terms from Vitol following bribery scandal
(Reuters) - Mexico is looking to renegotiate some of its hundreds of millions of dollars-worth of contracts with Vitol SA after the global energy trader acknowledged paying kickbacks to win business with state oil company Pemex, Reuters has learned. The dispute in Mexico, the world’s fourth-largest importer of refined oil products, is part of the... Continue Reading →