More Oil & Gas News

Venezuela’s national oil company was so badly damaged during Hugo Chavez’s regime that it will need to be replaced, a founding board member of Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) declared.

The price of crude continued rising in the New York market with the front-month contract inching up 0.4% Mar. 12 as the US dollar slipped against the yen for the first time in a week and US Treasury prices rose as investors took advantage of recently higher yields. Front-month natural gas dipped 0.1%.

France’s Total SA is entering the final stages of divesting its assets in Trinidad and Tobago to National Gas Co. of Trinidad & Tobago Ltd. (NGC). Total, NGC, and sources at the twin-island nation’s Ministry of Energy all confirm that the deal is expected to be completed within the next few months.

The American Petroleum Institute plans to launch a television and online video advertising campaign to remind members of Congress that passing punitive oil and gas taxes to reduce the federal deficit would be short-sighted and counterproductive in the long run.

Asian-Pacific nations can be expected to intensify their efforts to improve their energy security as North America achieves that goal, a senior researcher at China’s Energy Research Institute said. Yang Yufeng made that observation as he described conclusions Chinese policymakers reached as they prepared the country’s first Energy Outlook last year.

Chevron Corp. is on schedule to deliver its 2017 production target of 3.3 million boe/d because 98% of its targeted production already is in design, construction, or production.

Worldwide liquid fuels consumption will reach 90.1 million b/d in 2013 and 91.5 million b/d in 2014, due to a moderate recovery in global economic growth, the US Energy Information Administration forecast in its latest Short-Term Energy Outlook. EIA estimates that world liquid fuels consumption was 89.1 million b/d in 2012.

The price of crude inched up marginally Mar. 11 with the front-month contract posting its highest closing since February on the New York market.

Christopher Bloomer, formerly with Petrobank Energy & Resources, has been named chief executive officer and a director of Connacher Oil & Gas Ltd., an independent oil sands producer based in Calgary.

US Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Ronald L. Wyden (D-Ore.) requested information from the US Energy Information Administration about rising US gasoline prices for a hearing he plans to hold on the situation.

US House Energy and Commerce Committee members released a discussion draft of legislation designed to jump-start approval of the proposed Keystone XL crude oil pipeline project.

Crude prices continued to climb Mar. 8 in the New York futures market on news the US unemployment rate slipped to 7.7% in February—its lowest level in 4 years—from 7.9% in January.

The European Union antitrust authority approved OAO Rosneft’s planned takeover of TNK-BP from BP PLC and others as outlined in previously announced agreements (OGJ Online, Nov. 26, 2012).