Oil Headlines - 16 October 2011

China paper warns India off Vietnam oil deal Reuters BEIJING Oct 16 (Reuters) - India is playing with fire by agreeing to explore for oil with Vietnam in the disputed South China Sea, a major Chinese newspaper said on Sunday, advising the Indian company to reconsider and pull out. ...

Parliament, Museveni in battle over oil deals East African An oil rig prepares to drill in western Uganda near the shores of Lake Albert. Last week, parliament slapped a moratorium on the execution of oil contracts and transactions in the oil sector until the necessary laws governing the sector have been ...

Keystone Pipeline: Would oil be consumed in the US or exported? Billings Gazette HELENA — A big selling point for the Keystone XL pipeline is that its billions of barrels of Canadian crude oil would provide "energy security" for the United States, giving the country a long-term, reliable supply of petroleum from a friendly ally. ...

Gabon oil union says talks with govt ended, threatens Reuters Africa LIBREVILLE (Reuters) - Gabon's main oil workers' union said on Saturday that talks with the government had broken down and it would lodge a strike notice with the government on Monday. Guy-Roger Aurat Reteno, secretary-general of ONEP, which represents ...

Oil flows again in Libya, but challenges remain Channel News Asia LONDON: Libyan oil production has resumed more quickly than expected, but the country still has enormous political and technical obstacles to surmount before the situation returns to normal, experts said. "The market should be ready for Libyan crude," ...

Iran May Start Exporting Jet Fuel to Neighbors, Asia, Fars Says BusinessWeek By Ladane Nasseri Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Iran will "soon" start exporting aviation fuel processed at its Bandar Abbas refinery in the country's south, Fars reported, citing an Oil Ministry official. Several East Asian countries have shown interest in ...

Dubai-based oil retailer Enoc expects loss of Dh2.7b in 2011 gulfnews.com By Himendra Mohan Kumar, Staff Reporter Abu Dhabi: Dubai-based oil retailer Emirates National Oil Company (Enoc) said on Saturday the cost of providing subsidised fuel to its customers is expected to lead to a loss of Dh2.7 billion for the company this ...

Qatar Shares Head for Highest in Three Weeks on Earnings, Oil BusinessWeek By Zahra Hankir Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Qatar's shares headed for the highest close in more than three weeks on optimism about third- quarter earnings and after oil rallied last week. Industries Qatar QSC, the Middle East's second-biggest petrochemicals ...

Iran suffers under sanctions, faces threat of more Channel News Asia TEHRAN: Iran, OPEC's second-biggest oil producer, is threatened with new economic sanctions by US President Barack Obama, who has vowed to make it "pay a price" for an alleged assassination plot in Washington. Western and UN sanctions in force over ...

Oil/Gas Industry find help for Mondak fields at the Bakken Show Examiner.com The Bakken Oil Product & Service Show in Williston, North Dakota this week was a little different. It was more like a speed dating site for companies who are in the drilling business to find mates – or other vendors - find scare resources, labor pools, ...

ALEX MILLS: Oil, gas industry upswing hits 20 months San Angelo Standard Times By Alex Mills The oil and gas industry in Texas just completed its 20th consecutive month of improved economic activity, according to the Texas Petro Index. Since December 2009, the TPI has improved over the previous month. The December 2009 TPI was ...

Canada's Oil Sands Boondoggle Huffington Post Canada Big oil and the government of Canada are making promises that should alarm every citizen. They have declared that the controversial $7-billion Keystone XL pipeline will bring you jobs, economic security and more 'friendly' oil. ...

Oil and gas boom in Texas helps fuel Smith Pipe expansion ReporterNews.com Buoyed by an increase in oil and gas exploration, the company now has about 400 workers total, with about 285 in Abilene. Joe Chavez walks through the testing facility where tanks are checked for leaks at the Smith Pipe headquarters. ...

India state oil companies to cut jet-fuel prices MarketWatch By Eric Yep MUMBAI -(MarketWatch)- India's state-run oil companies will lower jet fuel prices by about 0.5% for the fortnight beginning Sunday, an oil ministry official said Saturday. Indian fuel retailers will raise jet fuel prices to INR58,271 ...

Oil Headlines - 15 October 2011

New CNOOC oil leak found in China's Bohai Bay Sacramento Bee AP BEIJING -- Chinese offshore oil and gas producer CNOOC Ltd. says it has suspended operation of an oil platform after finding a leak in one of its oil fields in the Bohai Bay. It is the latest in a series of offshore spills in the Bohai Bay that have ...

Oil prices could spike to 2008 levels: Goldman Sachs Firstpost New York: Arjun Murti, the Goldman Sachs equity analyst who predicted oil prices would spike to $150-$200 a barrel three years ago said on Friday the market is showing 'stark similarities' to the start of the 2007-2008 bull run. ...

Libya's Waha Oil Nears End of Workers' Strike Wall Street Journal By BENOIT FAUCON LONDON—Waha Oil Co. moved closer to resolving a dispute with workers after a company official said the government supports the dismissal of Chairman Bashir Elshahab. Workers went on strike last month to protest against Mr. Elshahab, ...

ND likely to pass Calif. as oil producer this year San Jose Mercury News By JAMES MacPHERSON AP BISMARCK, ND—North Dakota will likely leapfrog California and may even overtake Alaska in the next year—far outpacing earlier industry predictions—to become one of the nation's three biggest oil-producing states, a government ...

Bahamas oil drilling could begin by 2012 MiamiHerald.com The move cleared a major obstacle in the way of the Bahamas' oil exploration goals since leases identified for their potential oil finds are near Cuban waters. "Without the agreed border between the Bahamas and Cuba, there would be some uncertainty as ...

Strong quake briefly halts Russian oil supplies to China Reuters By Vladimir Soldatkin and Steve Gutterman MOSCOW (Reuters) - A strong earthquake struck Russia's Far East near the Chinese border on Friday, shaking buildings hundreds of kilometres (miles) away, briefly halting Russian oil supplies to its ...

Weakening Rupee Prompts Oil Refiners to Use Dollar Funding: India Credit Bloomberg Photographer: Pankaj Nangia/Bloomberg The combination of a weakening rupee and US interest rates near a record low is prompting India's state-owned refiners to turn to dollar funding for oil imports. Bharat Petroleum Corp. and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. ...

China's oil demand growth slows further in Q3 - NDRC Reuters India By Jim Bai and Melanie Lee BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's apparent oil demand growth slowed further in the third quarter, largely in line with economic growth in the world's second-largest economy amid domestic policy constraints and global ...

Oil-fines bill advances in House Houma Courier Under the Clean Water Act, BP can be fined from $1000 to $4300 per barrel leaked after the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. That could add up to fines of between $5 billion and $20 billion. The first $2.7 billion will go into the ...

Oil jobs booming while the well runs dry for other industries Your Houston News “Aviation is among the fields of study that people may not realize is crucial to the oil and gas industry,” she said. Ironically, for the many oil and gas companies in the area, her comments help to illustrate a problem several in the industry say they ...

US oil bears run for cover as prices spike-CFTC Reuters Africa The data may give some oil traders pause as it indicates the more than $10 a barrel surge in prices that week to almost $86 a barrel lacked substantial new buying from investors. It does, however, confirm that the pessimistic views related to the euro ...

Uganda Interior Minister To Resign Amid Oil Probe Fox Business By Nicholas Bariyo and Alexis Flynn KAMPALA, Uganda -(Dow Jones)- Uganda's internal affairs minister said Friday that he would resign his position to pave the way for a smooth investigation into graft allegations in the oil sector during his tenure as ...

US oil rig count hits record - Baker Hughes Reuters Africa Oil rig count up 10 at 1080 - Baker Hughes * About 53 pct of US rigs drilling for oil * Rig count 55.4 pct higher than a year ago (Recasts, adds details) Oct 14 (Reuters) - The number of rigs drilling for oil in the United States this week reached a ...

Oil prices rebound ahead of G20 talks Ninemsn Oil prices pushed strongly upward on Friday as confidence grew that the G20 would put muscle into the eurozone rescue and US data showed signs of firming growth. New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery, ...

North American Oil Demand Stalls -- Producers Suffer Margin Squeeze MarketWatch (press release) NEW YORK, NY, Oct 14, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Oil prices took a hit earlier this week despite fears of another recession fading as US jobs and manufacturing data suggested the economy would continue to grow. Gas consumption -- particularly in ...

Brent-WTI Crude Oil Spread Hits Record as Worries About WTI Relevance Grow Wall Street Journal (blog) By Jenny Gross The price gap between the world's two main oil benchmarks widened to a record level Friday after the Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index said this week that it will add Brent crude, the European crude benchmark, to its index starting in 2012, ...

North Slope oil production on the rise Anchorage Daily News By KRISTEN NELSON With the exception of Endicott and Northstar, production at all Alaska North Slope oil fields was up in September over August. And August production was up over July as scheduled maintenance projects wound up. ...

TransCanada restarts Keystone oil pipeline Montreal Gazette By Reuters October 14, 2011 CALGARY – TransCanada Corp. has restarted its Keystone oil pipeline to the US Midwest from Canada after a daylong shutdown it blamed on a backlog of crude supplies within Alberta, the company said on Friday. ...

Solar Sees Use in Oil Industry GetSolar.com Many households around the world have adopted solar power for heating or hot water, but the American oil company Chevron has found an even more surprising use for the technology, according to Bloomberg. Concentrated solar thermal, one of the smaller ...

Mutharika orders oil companies not to offload fuel Nyasa Times Malawi's President Mutharika has ordered oil companies not to offload fuel in the capital Lilongwe until after the Heads of State COMESA summit finishes on Sunday. Malawi is hosting the 15th COMESA heads of state summit, ...

Increased oil drilling spurs concerns The Coloradoan Oil and natural gas can be found deep below the earth's surface at depths of 3000 to 14000 feet. Companies drill these wells vertically and even horizontally to get at the oil and natural gas in the Niobrara formation. The Niobrara is located in the ...

Oil Headlines - 14 October 2011

US to Let BP Bid on Gulf Oil-Drilling Leases Wall Street Journal By TENNILLE TRACY WASHINGTON—The US has decided to allow BP PLC to bid on new oil-drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico that go up for sale later this year, less than two years after BP's Macondo well erupted and caused the worst offshore oil spill in ...

Oil Firms Face Liability Protection Challenges Wall Street Journal By ANGEL GONZALEZ HOUSTON —The US government broke precedent by issuing citations to contractors Halliburton Co. and Transocean Ltd. in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, along with rig operator BP PLC. While now facing greater scrutiny from regulators, ...

Oil-spill companies fined $1.2 million Sydney Morning Herald Two shipping companies have been fined a total of $1.2 million and ordered to make a public apology for Queensland's biggest oil spill. Swire Navigation Co Ltd and Bluewind Shipping Ltd were each fined $600000 today after pleading guilty earlier this ...

Rig-Retiring Worries Linger for Oil Firms Wall Street Journal Oil and natural-gas companies have warned that as many as 24 billion barrels of oil equivalent in the North Sea could remain untapped because of expenses tied to decommissioning platforms under the UK tax system. An entire production facility needs to ...

Pirates release oil tanker, 20 sailors seized off of ... Washington Post By AP, LAGOS, Nigeria — A management company says pirates have released an oil tanker seized off the coast of Nigeria, freeing the 20-member crew unharmed. A spokeswoman for Columbia Ship Management of Hamburg, Germany told The Associated Press on ...

Canada confident US will approve oil pipeline despite “noise” from opposition Washington Post By AP, TORONTO — Canada's natural resources minister said Thursday he is confident the Obama administration will approve a Canadian company's plan to build a massive oil pipeline from western Canada to the Gulf Coast despite “noise” from environmental ...

Cuba prepares for oil drilling Sun-Sentinel A giant Chinese-built oil rig is slowly heading across the ocean toward Cuban waters, fueling fears that offshore oil exploration north of Havana could jeopardize South Florida's fragile ecosystem and lead to ...

US OIL INVENTORIES: Crude Stockpiles Rise By 1.3M Barrels Wall Street Journal Crude oil stockpiles rose 1.3 million barrels to 337.6 million barrels, compared with an average survey estimate of a decline of 200000 barrels. The report contrasted with figures from the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, which reported ...

Rodinia Oil Corp. Announces Completion of Drilling of its "Mulyawara-1" Well ... MarketWatch (press release) Rodinia is an international oil and gas exploration corporation. The Common Shares and Warrants are listed for trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbols "ROZ" and "ROZ.WT" respectively. Rodinia is engaged in the exploration, acquisition and ...

TransCanada says oil pipeline route unlikely to change Reuters OMAHA, NEB (Reuters) - The controversial proposed path of the TransCanada Keystone XL oil pipeline across Nebraska is unlikely to change, company officials said Tuesday. Alex Pourbaix, TransCanada's president of energy and oil pipelines, ...

UPDATE 1-Eni starts tests on Libya Greenstream pipeline Reuters By Svetlana Kovalyova MILAN/LONDON, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Italian oil major Eni and Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) launched tests of the Greenstream pipeline on Thursday as they aim to fully restart the flow of Libyan gas to Italy, ...

PRE Resources, GE Unit, Partner to Buy Rocky Mountain Oil and Gas Reserves MarketWatch (press release) The fields feature primarily long-lived oil reserves on nearly 18000 net acres. "This partnership with GE will enable us to enhance the assets' production, implement low-risk secondary recovery programs and generate new drilling," said Mark A. Erickson ...

Japan Utilities' April-September Oil, Gas Use Surged On Nuclear Outage Fox Business By Mari Iwata TOKYO -(Dow Jones)- Japanese utilities' oil and natural gas use sharply rose in the first six months of the fiscal year started April 1, as they operated thermal power plants at higher-than-normal levels to make up for idle nuclear power ...

AER Energy Announces Agreement to Purchase Three Texas Leases From Rehoboth ... MarketWatch (press release) The company supervises and contracts all drilling, completion and production phases in both oil and gas wells in Texas and Kansas to Multiplex Resources of Houston, TX. AER Energy Resources, Inc. ( www.aernenergy.com ) is a diversified holding company ...

Oil Stocks: Saudi Arabia Says Iran Will Pay the Price for Alleged Plot Business Insider The ambassador is fine, but the news makes the market wonder: How will this affect oil stocks? Any conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran can, and often does, disrupt oil prices. The nations are actively involved in a “contest for power in the oil-rich ...

Iraq inks final gas deal with SKorea's KOGAS The Associated Press BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's oil ministry and South Korea's KOGAS on Thursday signed a long-delayed deal to develop a promising western gas field near the Syrian border, the latest step by the war-ravaged country to tap its own resources to fuel growing ...

Sanctions Cost Iran $14 Billion a Year in Lost Oil Revenue BusinessWeek By Roxana Tiron Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Iran is facing a projected loss of $14 billion a year in oil revenue as a result of economic sanctions, according to the US Treasury Department. “Iran has been increasingly unable to attract foreign investment, ...

Oil Volatility Increases as US Crude Output Exceeds Forecast BusinessWeek By Justin Doom Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Oil options volatility rose as the underlying futures declined after the US Energy Department said supplies rose 1.34 million barrels, exceeding the estimate of 15 analysts in a Bloomberg News survey. ...

Chevron Rises To $104 As Kazakhstan Kicks Up Production Forbes Chevron, the second largest vertically integrated oil major, has been expanding its operational foothold in the oil rich state of Kazakhstan over the past few years. The nation's vast unexplored resources of oil and gas have become a attractive ...

Whiting Petroleum awaits N Dakota ok for pipeline Reuters By Janet McGurty Oct 13, (Reuters) - Independent oil producer Whiting Petroleum Corp is awaiting state permission for construction of crude pipeline to replace trucks as a means of access to major crude markets for the growing amount of shale oil from ...

Oil Headlines - 13 October 2011

4 major oil companies join in $7.1 billion investment in developing North Sea ... Washington Post (blog) By AP, LONDON — Four oil companies say they have won British government approval for a 4.5 billion pound ($7.1 billion) investment in developing a major oil field in the North Sea. BP, Shell, ConocoPhillips and Chevron are partners in the plan to ...

BP, 2 other companies cited over Gulf oil spill Seattle Post Intelligencer MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, AP NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Federal regulators on Wednesday cited oil company BP PLC and two other companies — Transocean Ltd. and Halliburton — for alleged safety and environmental violations stemming from last year's rig explosion and ...

Linc Plans More Oil Acquisitions on Strong Australian Dollar BusinessWeek Linc aims to double production at the ERG fields in Texas and Louisiana within two years to more than 6000 barrels of oil equivalent a day, Bond said. The company may add as much as 6000 barrels a day of crude output with another Gulf area purchase, ...

Will Saudis Play Oil Card To Revenge Iranian Plot? NPR But Saudi Arabia may want to respond to Iran in its own way, and its weapon could be oil. Iran and Saudi Arabia for decades have been rivals in the Muslim world — Iran as the protector of Shia Muslims, Saudi Arabia as the preeminent Sunni power. ...

Oil Executive Promotes Shale Gas to Europeans New York Times “By 2030, Europeans are expected to be significantly more reliant on imports of natural gas than they are today,” Mr. Swiger said in London at the Oil and Money conference, which is jointly organized by The International Herald Tribune and Energy ...

Chinese state oil firm eyes investments in Brazil's pre-salt Fox News Sao Paulo – A subsidiary of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation has begun talks on developing deposits in an oil-rich region off the coast of the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, the media reported Wednesday. The vice president of CNPC ...

UPDATE 1-China Sept crude imports down 12 pct on yr, edge up from Aug Reuters BEIJING, Oct 13 (Reuters) - China's September crude oil imports fell 12.2 percent on a daily basis from a record high rate a year earlier and stood below a 5.0 million bpd mark for the fourth consecutive month. Customs data showed on Thursday that ...

Oil Ministry allocates 7.23 mmscmd of ONGC gas to power, fertilizer units The Hindu The Oil Ministry has allocated 7.23 million standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) of natural gas from State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp's (ONGC) fields to power and fertilizer firms, including Reliance Infra, NTPC and National Fertilisers Ltd. “The ...

Oil-Dri Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2011 Results MarketWatch (press release) CHICAGO, IL, Oct 12, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Oil-Dri Corporation of America /quotes/zigman/1474339/quotes/nls/odc ODC +2.33% today announced net sales of $226755000 for the fiscal year ended July 31, 2011, a 4% increase compared with net sales ...

ONGC Videsh Limited buys 25% in kazakh oil block Economic Times NEW DELHI: ONGC Videsh, the foreign arm of state-run explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp, has acquired 25% stake in the highly prospective Satpayev exploration block in Kazakhstan, which can produce close to 300000 barrels per day. ...

Why Big Oil Will Pump Out Big Earnings TheStreet.com As complex as these companies are, the price of a barrel of crude oil is still the most important input to their earnings results and therefore has the biggest impact on their stock prices. It is no wonder that these mega-cap oil companies' share ...

Arrival of Cuba offshore oil rig delayed again Reuters By Jeff Franks HAVANA, Oct 12 (Reuters) - The arrival of a Chinese-built drilling rig set to explore for oil in Cuban waters has been delayed again and is not expected to reach the island until the second half of December, sources close to the project ...

General Electric Invests in Oil and Gas Midstream Provider Summit Midstream Financial News Network Online GE (NYSE:GE) unit Energy Financial Services is investing in Summit Midstream Partners, which acquires and develops midstream energy infrastructure in unconventional North American basins. Summit's Barnett asset, DFW midstream, is a large gas gathering ...

Study: FDA Allowed Unsafe Levels of Chemicals in Seafood After BP Oil Spill Fox News AP June 6: A small oil-covered fish lies on the water's surface at Bay Long off the coast of Louisiana. The Food and Drug Administration allowed unsafe levels of contaminants in seafood after the BP oil spill in 2010, according to a new study. ...

Ugandan president denies oil bribery claims AFP KAMPALA — Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni rejected corruption claims Wednesday after lawmakers put a freeze on new oil contracts over claims that government ministers accepted bribes for tenders. "I have never been given any money by anybody," the ...

Oil company finds no leaks in N. Idaho pipeline Seattle Post Intelligencer CATALDO, Idaho (AP) — Oil company ConocoPhillips has restarted a gasoline pipeline that runs across northern Idaho after a series of tests confirmed the line's integrity. The company spent more than a week to determine if a leak was the cause of a ...

Oil and gas holds safety summit Wyoming Business Report By Tim Monroe CASPER — The annual Safety Summit hosted by the Wyoming Oil and Gas Industry Safety Alliance (WOGISA) took place in Casper today. Nearly 300 oil and gas industry employees and those from allied organizations met to review progress toward ...

Owner: 20 Sailors on Tanker Seized off Nigeria ABC News By YINKA IBUKUN AP Twenty Eastern European sailors have been captured by pirates who seized an oil tanker off the coast of Nigeria, the vessel's owner said Wednesday. The MT Cape Bird, hijacked about 90 nautical miles from Lagos on Saturday night, ...

New Western Texas Oil and Gas Corp. Acquires the Reves Lease to Expand Oil and ... MarketWatch (press release) /quotes/zigman/4002529 NWTR 0.00% , an independent energy company engaged in the development, production and exploration of oil, gas and other minerals in North America, today announced the Company's wholly owned subsidiary, New Western Texas Oil and ...

Northern Oil & Gas, Inc. Announces Addition of New General Counsel MarketWatch (press release) James R. Sankovitz, who has served as the company's Chief Operating Officer, General Counsel and Secretary, will continue to serve as Northern Oil's Chief Operating Officer and oversee all day-to-day operations of the company. ...

Oil pipeline will likely come through Rockwall Rockwall County Herald Banner The connection - named the Wrangler Pipeline - will create an open tube from Embridge's crude oil terminal in Cushing, Okla. to the ECHO terminal south of Houston. An eventual connection to Port Arthur, is also being planned. ...

Crude-Oil Volatility Declines as IEA Trims Demand Forecast BusinessWeek By Justin Doom Oct. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Oil options volatility fell as the underlying futures fluctuated after the International Energy Agency cut its 2012 global oil-demand forecast. Implied volatility for at-the-money options expiring in December, ...

Delek US Holdings buys rest of Lion Oil for $13M BusinessWeek Delek US Holdings Inc. said Tuesday that it has acquired the 11.7 percent stake in Lion Oil Co. it did not already own from a group of private investors for about $13 million. The purchase will be funded through a combination of cash and debt. ...

FACTBOX-Companies drilling in Ohio's Utica shale Reuters Oct 12 (Reuters) - Oil companies are scrambling to drill in the Utica shale, a new, unconventional oil hub in eastern Ohio that some say has more potential than other US shale plays. Eight companies have started seeking cheap, domestic oil in the ...

La. lawmakers meet with top drilling regulator BusinessWeek Two members of Louisiana's congressional delegation met Tuesday with a top Interior Department official to express concerns about the Obama administration's regulation of the offshore drilling industry after the Gulf oil spill. Sen. ...