Russia’s Sovcomflot oil line will undertake a trial shipment of oil to Japan this summer, reported to be the first shipment ever to sail the entire Northern Sea Route from northwest Russia to Asia.

ExxonMobil Corp. and Mitsui & Co.—each said to be buying 730,000 bbl—are the latest in a growing list of purchasers of crude oil delivered by Russia's Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline.

El Paso Corp. agreed to sell its interest in Mexican pipeline and compression assets to Sempra Pipelines & Storage, a unit of Sempra Energy.

Aqaba Bulk Chemicals Co. has undertaken to modernize its oil terminal at the port of Aqaba on the Red Sea beginning in January.

Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez, intent on increasing tension over oil exploration in the South Atlantic, has signed a government decree restricting the movement of vessels between the Argentine mainland and the Falkland Islands, also known as Las Malvinas.

Argentina has detained a cargo vessel it claims recently delivered oil drilling supplies to the Falkland Islands, stepping up pressure on the UK to halt planned oil exploration activities in the region.

The Sabine Neches Waterway at Port Arthur, Tex., has been reopened to limited tanker traffic while clean-up continues of crude oil spilled after a tanker-barge collision Jan. 23 (OGJ Online, Jan. 26, 2009).

The US Coast Guard said about half the 450,000 gal of crude oil spilled into the Sabine Neches Waterway at Port Arthur, Tex., on Jan. 23 had been recovered, evaporated, or dispersed by Jan. 25.

Tanker capacity will outpace demand growth in 2010, further depressing freight rates, the International Energy Agency says in its Jan. 15 Oil Market Report.