Latest news with #oilproduction
Reuters
6 hours ago
- Business
- Reuters
Equinor says Arctic Castberg oilfield producing at peak capacity
COPENHAGEN, June 20 (Reuters) - Norway's Equinor ( opens new tab said on Friday its Johan Castberg oilfield in the Arctic Barents Sea was producing at peak capacity of 220,000 barrels of oil per day. Equinor restarted production at the field last month after repairs following an outage earlier in May.
Bloomberg
2 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Mike Sommers on Impact of Israel-Iran Conflict on Energy
Mike Sommers, American Petroleum Institute President & CEO, discusses how the energy sector is watching the escalation in the Middle East, and states that American oil production has helped keep energy prices low amid the Israel-Iran conflict. He also talks about what future action could look like in the United States under the Trump Administration if there are concerns about energy. Mike Sommers speaks with Joe Mathieu and Tyler Kendall on the late edition of Bloomberg's "Balance of Power." (Source: Bloomberg)
Washington Post
2 days ago
- Business
- Washington Post
While cutting solar and wind, Senate GOP plans rewards for oil drillers
Senate Republicans have added tax breaks and other subsidies for oil drillers to the GOP tax bill making its way through Congress, including a provision that would reward companies for using an emerging greenhouse-gas-fighting technology — capturing carbon from the atmosphere — to boost production of oil by billions of barrels a year.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
The first North Sea oil is pumped ashore in Britain – archive, June 1975
19 June 1975 In an English garden party atmosphere, under marquees in the middle of an oil refinery, Mr Tony Benn yesterday conducted a ceremony of what he called national celebrations of the first North Sea oil. He had just turned a large green valve on the tanker, Theogennitor, moored with 14,000 tons of oil worth more than £500,000 at the BP refinery on the Isle of Grain, Kent. On such a flaming June morning it was unpatriotic to dwell on the disclosure that delays at the well had caused the tanker to come in less than half full with £750,000 worth of oil space empty – so as not to delay the ceremony – and that the oil was not actually due to flow until the evening for safety reasons. It would also be rather brutal to harp on the fact that the occasion was an international one not a British one. The Japanese built, Liberian-registered, Greek-owned and skippered tanker was delivering Scottish oil to an English port for an Anglo-American consortium. Mr Benn said that Britain would be one of the top seven oil producers by 1980, and he believed that it was 'a day of national celebration for us. I feel sure that the British people would wish to offer their praise and thanks to the pioneers who faced the problem of extracting this oil from this hard environment and brought it to us.' There was 'no one living in any part of the United Kingdom who does not feel conscious of the historic nature of the achievements we are jointly celebrating.' Mr Benn also had a 'peculiar sense of security and satisfaction that comes from knowing that the UK has at its disposal the first trickle of oil supplies in which so much of our future is locked up.' Like the first piece of rock from the moon, the first drops of oil, changed dream into reality, brought home the facts in a personal way, and would stimulate a reassessment of Britain's prospects. Mr Benn said 'This really is in its own way exactly as significant as the first run of Stephenson's Rocket or whatever other industrial event you may choose. It is a turning point.' It would not save Britain's problems, but it provided a very great opportunity. He congratulated the courage of those who found and extracted the oil – a consortium of Hamilton Brothers of Colorado, Texaco, Associated Newspapers, and Kleinwort Benson. Mr Benn said that the nation 'will expect us to make the biggest possible British contribution to the development of our own oil resources. The government expects North Sea oil operators to buy British wherever possible. We must ourselves raise the British share of equipment and supplies to well above its present level of under 50 per cent' The government was also responsible for making certain that the oil resources were used widely for the benefit of Britain as a whole and to see that the British people received a full and fair return from its development. Mr Benn, surrounded by oil industry executives, said at his press conference: 'We have Concorde ready for anybody who worries about how we are going to use the oil.' Equally light-heartedly when asked whether Britain would apply to join the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, he said: 'It's just a wee bit early, but I appreciate the thought.' The BP oil platform Graythorp II – which is twice the height of Big Ben – was put into position in the Forties field early yesterday.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Blockades Loom Again as Libya Seeks Global Oil Investment
Given that around 97% of its government revenues come from oil, it might seem obvious to all Libya's principal factions that increasing production is a very good idea. There is plenty of scope to do so, as before the removal of long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 it had easily been able to produce around 1.65 million bpd of predominantly high-quality light, sweet crude oil. Additionally positive back then was that production had been on a rising trend, up from about 1.4 million bpd in 2000. Further increases were on the horizon to push output close to the circa-3 million bpd achieved in the late 1960s, with the National Oil Corporation (NOC) planning to roll out enhanced oil recovery techniques at maturing oil fields to that effect. Up until very recently, new plans were progressing well from the 'Strategic Programs Office' (SPO) to boost oil production from the current 1.4 million bpd level up to 1.6 million bpd within a year or so and then to 2 million bpd by 2028/29. However, rising political unrest again threatens not only to derail this process but also to see the imposition of widespread blockades on Libya's existing oil output as well. At the beginning of this year, oil minister Khalifa Abdulsadek stated that the country still required US$3-4 billion to reach the 2026/27 1.6 million bpd production target. Towards this end, early March saw Libya announce plans to launch its first oil exploration bidding round in over 17 years, with 22 areas up for grabs across the country, which still has 48 billion barrels of proved crude oil reserves in place -- the largest in Africa. These include major sites in the Sirte, Murzuq, and Ghadamis basins as well as in the offshore Mediterranean region. According to an update from the Oil Ministry in the middle of last month, the bidding had already attracted more than 40 applicants, including some of the world's biggest and most technologically advanced oil firms. U.S. supermajor ConocoPhillips is one firm that has voiced its interest in expanding its operations in Libya, in which it currently runs the Waha concession. Other interest is likely to come from major firms from Europe, for which Libya has become one country targeted to substitute for lost supplies from Russia due to sanctions resulting from its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, as analysed in full in my latest book on the new global oil market order. These may well include Italy's Eni, Spain's Repsol, Austria's OMV, and the U.K.'s BP, has been told by sources close to the bidding process. Each of these firms were quick to resume exploration activities in Libya following blockades last August that halted around 700,000 bpd of oil production, despite a 10-year hiatus in their activities said, it may be that their patience will be tested again very soon as the possibility of new blockades rises sharply following the 12 May assassination of Abdul Ghani al-Kiklii – a militia leader and head of the Presidential Council-affiliated Stability Support Apparatus (SSA). According to a source who works closely with U.S. diplomatic initiatives in the country, spoken to by last week, al-Kiklii was specifically targeted as retaliation for the shooting of Salaheddin Elnajih, chairman of the Libyan Post Telecommunications and Information Technology Company and an appointee of the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU) Prime Minister, Abdulhamid Dbeibah. The GNU is the successor to the previous Government of National Accord (GNA). More broadly, the killing has been seen by rival factions as part of ongoing manoeuvres by Dbeibah and his supporters to consolidate his power through the elimination of key rivals in his main opposition groups. Following all this, it remains to be seen precisely how these opposition groups will react, but it is unlikely to portend well for the GNU government's plans to boost oil production. One group in particular may believe that the timing is right to launch another major offensive, political, economic and/or military, against the GNU, and this is Libya's alternative government – the Government of National Stability (GNS), based in the east – which in turn is backed by Khalifa Haftar, the leader of the Libyan National Army. Early signs of trouble ahead was a report on 28 May that the NOC's headquarters in the GNU-controlled Tripoli had been stormed by gunmen, although the NOC later bizarrely said that this had only been 'a limited personal dispute'. Nonetheless, shortly after the GNS's Haftar threatened to declare blockades of key Libyan oil fields again due to such attacks on institutions such as the NOC and suggested that its headquarters be moved into the eastern area – controlled by the GNS and his army – which would be 'safe'. He has made it clear since an agreement signed on 18 September 2020 that there can be no reconciliation in Libya between the opposing GNU and GNS governments so long as there is no sustainable equitable way for the country's oil revenues to be distributed between the rival groups. More specifically, at the time of signing the 2020 agreement that ended an economically devastating series of oil blockades across Libya, Haftar and his opposite number from the then-GNA at the signing, Ahmed Maiteeq, made an in-principle agreement to look into establishing a commission not only to determine how oil revenues across Libya are distributed but also to consider the implementation of several measures designed to stabilise the country's perilous financial position. The blockade from 18 January to 18 September cost the country at least US$9.8 billion in lost hydrocarbons revenues. Key to this tentative agreement was the formation of a joint technical committee, which would – according to the official statement: 'Oversee oil revenues and ensure the fair distribution of resources… and control the implementation of the terms of the agreement during the next three months, provided that its work is evaluated at the end of the 2020 and a plan is defined for the next year.' In order to address the fact that the then-GNA – and now GNU -- effectively held sway over the NOC and, by extension, the Central Bank of Libya (in which the revenues are physically held), the committee would also 'prepare a unified budget that meets the needs of each party… and the reconciliation of any dispute over budget allocations… and will require the Central Bank [in Tripoli] to cover the monthly or quarterly payments approved in the budget without any delay, and as soon as the joint technical committee requests the transfer.' Due to the influence of various domestic and international disruptive elements – notably Russia – since that idea was mooted it has never been properly implemented. However, there is still hope from several quarters – including the U.S. and U.N. – that such a deal could work well, and indeed that it might still be able to solve the ongoing impasse over the country's oil and gas revenues. In the meantime and in the absence of such a deal, it looks highly likely that Libya will remain subject to further oil blockades and shutdowns as part of the ongoing struggle its warring factions for control over Libya's oil resources. By Simon Watkins for More Top Reads From this article on Sign in to access your portfolio
