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Baker Hughes Says New Technology To Lift N. American Results

Baker Hughes Inc, the world’s third-largest oilfield services company, said it expects strong growth in North America as oil and gas producers turn to its new technologies to reduce drilling time and cut costs. The company, whose services include seismic surveys that determine where oil lies under the earth’s surface and hydraulic fracturing of wells, launched 47 new products and services in the second quarter. "In North America, the trend of customers spending incremental op-ex towards production-related technologies is unfolding as we expected," Chief Executive Martin Craighead said on a post-earnings call. "We predict strong growth in this area for the foreseeable future." Technologies developed in the last year or two contribute between 35-50 percent to the company’s revenue, Craighead said. Oil and gas companies, under increasing pressure from shareholders, are looking to increase production at lower cost, prompting oilfield service providers to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Russia's Rosneft to court Eastern investors

Russian oil producer Rosneft will be among the key participants in an international investment conference in the Far East, state media said Friday. Russian President Vladimir Putin and special envoy to the Far East Yuri Trutnev said last month they expected the region would attract as much as $65 billion in new investments. Russian interests have pivoted to the East, where Asian market improvements translates to greater demand from the energy products supporting the Russian economy. The region’s government said it’s hosting an investment conference to strengthen ties to Asian economic powers like China. Delegates from Rosneft, the largest oil producer in Russia, are in attendance, state news agency RIA Novosti reported . Island nations in the Asia-Pacific like Japan import nearly all of their oil and natural gas. Rosneft President Igor Sechin said last year the Far East is "one of the key regions" for new business operations. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Russia’s Rosneft to court Eastern investors

Russian oil producer Rosneft will be among the key participants in an international investment conference in the Far East, state media said Friday. Russian President Vladimir Putin and special envoy to the Far East Yuri Trutnev said last month they expected the region would attract as much as $65 billion in new investments. Russian interests have pivoted to the East, where Asian market improvements translates to greater demand from the energy products supporting the Russian economy. The region’s government said it’s hosting an investment conference to strengthen ties to Asian economic powers like China. Delegates from Rosneft, the largest oil producer in Russia, are in attendance, state news agency RIA Novosti reported . Island nations in the Asia-Pacific like Japan import nearly all of their oil and natural gas. Rosneft President Igor Sechin said last year the Far East is "one of the key regions" for new business operations. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil Set for First Weekly Gain in Four on Ukraine, Gaza

West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude headed for the first weekly gain in a month after a Malaysian Air passenger jet was downed in Ukraine and Israel sent ground forces into the Gaza Strip. WTI futures rose as much as 0.7 percent in New York, extending a 2 percent increase yesterday that was the biggest gain since June 12. The Boeing Co. 777 crashed en route to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam in the main battleground of Ukraine’s civil war, threatening to escalate the worst crisis between the West and Russia since the end of the Cold War. Israel’s movement of troops and tanks into the coastal enclave marks the first significant ground operation in Gaza since 2009. “Rising prices yesterday and today reflect the political situations in Gaza and Ukraine, and of course there’s potential to go higher,” said Gerrit Zambo, an oil trader at Bayerische Landesbank in Munich, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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NYMEX August gas futures fall below $4/MMBtu on bearish storage data

NYMEX August natural gas futures fell below $4/MMBtu early Thursday in intra-day trading for the first time since early January as storage data came in strongly above analyst estimates. As of 10:54 am EDT (1454 GMT), the contract traded at $3.970/MMBtu, down 14.9 cents from Wednesday’s close. The US Energy Information Administration reported an injection of 107 Bcf. Analysts had estimated an injection in the range of 95 to 99 Bcf. The number was also well above the 62 Bcf build last year and the 65 Bcf five-year average, as mild-temperatures depressed cooling demand. Working gas in storage was 2.129 Tcf as of July 11, according to EIA estimates. Stocks were 608 Bcf less than last year at this time and 727 Bcf below the five-year average of 2.856 Tcf. The storage data pushed the contract well below the $4/MMBtu mark, which has held since January 10 as the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil Prices Rise on News of Plane Crash in Ukraine

Oil prices jumped on news that a Malaysia Airlines passenger plane went down in eastern Ukraine , as traders worried the crash could become a potential flash point that presented another threat to global crude supplies. Israel’s decision to send ground troops into the Gaza Strip also lent support to prices, which in recent weeks have been bolstered by flare-ups in the Middle East, the world’s biggest oil-producing region. U.S. oil futures closed $1.99, or 2%, higher at $103.19 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That’s the largest one-day dollar and percentage gain since June 12, when Islamists launched an uprising in Iraq. Prices continued to climb after the close of the regular trading session, recently hitting an intraday high of $103.61. Oil prices are at their highest in more than a week. Some traders said they were inundated with buy orders as news of the plane […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Natural-Gas Prices Drop on Greater-than-Expected Surplus

Natural-gas futures tumbled to a seven-month low Thursday, dropping below $4 a million British thermal units for the first time since December, following a government report showing greater-than-expected U.S. supplies. Producers added 107 billion cubic feet of gas to storage for the week ended July 11, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. The addition was eight bcf larger than what analysts and traders had expected, and 42 bcf larger than the five-year-average addition for that week of the year. Natural gas for August delivery recently dropped by 15 cents, or 3.6%, to $3.969 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The selling is adding to a month of losses. Steady surpluses have convinced money managers to sell out, with prices now down 16.7% since June 12. Traders use the EIA update to gauge how quickly stockpiles are recovering from high demand […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Libya rebels attack Tripoli's main airport

Several shells have hit the terminal of Libya’s main airport as rival armed groups fought in Tripoli for a fifth straight day, and gunmen assassinated a female politician in the country’s east. In another sign of growing turmoil, air controllers on Thursday halted work in Tripoli, shutting off much of the oil-producing country from international traffic. Tripoli International Airport has been a battlefield since fighters attacked it with heavy guns on Sunday to wrest control from a rival militia which has been based there since the fall of Libya’s late ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The conflict is fuelling worries that Libya is on the point of turning into a failed state where a weak central government is powerless to control the militias which helped oust Gaddafi in 2011. The airport fighting pits brigades from Misrata, a western coastal town, against rival fighters from Zintan in the northwest. On […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Libya rebels attack Tripoli’s main airport

Several shells have hit the terminal of Libya’s main airport as rival armed groups fought in Tripoli for a fifth straight day, and gunmen assassinated a female politician in the country’s east. In another sign of growing turmoil, air controllers on Thursday halted work in Tripoli, shutting off much of the oil-producing country from international traffic. Tripoli International Airport has been a battlefield since fighters attacked it with heavy guns on Sunday to wrest control from a rival militia which has been based there since the fall of Libya’s late ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The conflict is fuelling worries that Libya is on the point of turning into a failed state where a weak central government is powerless to control the militias which helped oust Gaddafi in 2011. The airport fighting pits brigades from Misrata, a western coastal town, against rival fighters from Zintan in the northwest. On […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil output cut at Libya's el-Feel field

LONDON–Oil production has been slashed at Libya’s el-Feel field, an oil official said Thursday, as a crude output recovery in the country starts to fizzle. The reopening of two key oil ports and a production restart at the country’s largest oil field, Sharara, drove international oil prices to a three-month low last week. But after ramping up to a five-month high, Libya’s oil production started falling again earlier Thursday. Now output is set to decline further after staff cut production at the 130,000 barrel-a-day el-Feel field, which is operated by an Eni SpA joint venture. Eni didn’t return a request for comment. "The field only has five wells under operation, other wells are totally closed," a person at the joint venture said, citing mounting insecurity. Staff are also considering shutting the field altogether, he said. An outbreak of violence in Tripoli–the worst in six months–led to fear of new […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple