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Pemex receives U.S. oil swap license, but for less than planned

A vehicle is seen beside fuel pumps at a Pemex gas station in Mexico City, January 13, 2015. State oil company Pemex [PEMX.UL] said on Wednesday it had received a license from the United States to import U.S. light crude in exchange for exports of Mexico’s heavier crude oil for the first time, but with a lower ceiling than originally planned. The terms of the year-long license will allow Pemex’s commercial arm, Pemex Comercio Internacional (PMI), to import U.S. light crude to process in its refineries from October, with the limit capped at 75,000 barrels per day (bpd). A Pemex spokesman said the decision to cut the original plan to import up to 100,000 barrels per day was made in accordance with the company’s present needs at its refineries. The first U.S. shipment would arrive in Mexico from the first half of November, he said. "The permit is for […]

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Poor quarterly results could push Pemex to sell valuable assets: analysts

Quarterly results reported Wednesday by Pemex could prompt the state company to offer sales or mortgages of valuable assets, including major pipelines and deepwater upstream rights, analysts said. Crude production in the third quarter stood at 2.266 million b/d, down 5.5% from 2.398 million b/d in the same period last year, Pemex said in a report to the Mexico Stock Exchange. The company registered a net loss of 167.7 billion Mexican pesos (about $10 billion), almost three times as much as the 59 billion pesos it lost in last year’s third quarter. Pemex pointed out that its crude export earnings were slashed as the price of its oil dropped to $42.75/b from $90.40/b over the period. "The results may be shocking but they hardly come as a surprise," said Arturo Carranza of the Mexico City-based Solana consultancy. "These sort of negative results have been going on for two years […]

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China confronts the pain of kicking its coal addiction

POWER PLAY | Cheap electricity, a changing climate This is part of a series exploring how the world’s hunger for cheap electricity is complicating efforts to combat climate change. A worker walks near the entrance to a coal mine in Luliang County in Shanxi, China, in May. (Adam Dean/For The Washington Post) LULIANG, China — China, the world’s biggest user of coal, is suddenly burning less of it, a change with enormous implications for the state of the atmosphere and the potential course of global climate change. The shift has been both abrupt and unexpected, bringing fresh credibility to China’s pledge to rein in its greenhouse gas emissions, now also the highest level in the world. Blamed in the West for the failure of the last global climate change talks, in Copenhagen in 2009, China is setting itself up to play a constructive role at the next round of […]

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China’s ENN in talks to secure more than 1 mil mt/year of LNG from 2018

China’s private energy company ENN Energy Holdings Ltd. is in negotiations with several LNG suppliers to secure more than 1 million mt/year of LNG over a five- to 10-year period starting from 2018, a senior company executive said Thursday. "We are talking to many sellers and would like to select the best offer," ENN Vice President Ma Shenyuan said on the sidelines of the Gastech Conference, held in Singapore October 27-30. ENN has been in discussions with several suppliers, including those with volumes from the US, he added. "I do believe [US LNG] will bring more diversity and competition to the industry." The volumes are to be delivered to ENN’s 3 million mt/year terminal project in China’s eastern Zhejiang region, which is due to commence operations in 2018. "We would like the terminal to be open to third parties from day one," Ma said. "We will be the foundation […]

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Anadarko drilling for less in U.S. shale

U.S. oil and gas company Anadarko Petroleum posts loss, but improves economics of drilling operations in U.S. shale basins. Photo courtesy of Anadarko Petroleum HOUSTON, Oct. 28 (UPI) — While taking a hefty loss for the quarter, U.S. oil and gas company Anadarko Petroleum said it was able to improve costs at operations in domestic shale basins. Anadarko reported a third quarter loss of $2.24 billion, compared with a profit of around $1.1 billion one year ago. Like its peers in the industry, the Houston-based company is struggling to generate cash at a time when crude oil is selling for about 45 percent less than it did at this time last year. "We remain committed to building and preserving value in this challenging environment," Anadarko Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Al Walker said in a statement. Despite the losses, the company said it was improving efficiency and productivity […]

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Oil company Hess posts fourth straight loss

Hess Corp. posts loss for the third quarter, but maintains ability to keep producing oil in a depressed market. Photo by photostock77/Shutterstock NEW YORK, Oct. 28 (UPI) — U.S.-focused oil producer Hess Corp. said it was taking a disciplined approach to its business operations after posting its fourth consecutive quarterly loss. Hess reported a net loss of $279 million for the third quarter of the year as crude oil prices, down by about 45 percent from last year, take their toll on producers. Exploration and production operations, known as the upstream sector, accounted for the bulk of the losses in the third quarter. Chief Executive Officer John Hess said spending cuts were expected from the company moving forward, but the company’s operational performance was robust in the weakened market. "We are well positioned in the current low price environment and are taking a disciplined approach to preserve our financial […]

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Canadian market forces Shell’s hand

Weak oil economy and the lack of pipeline infrastructure caused Royal Dutch Shell to shelve Canadian oil sands project. File photo by Brian Kersey/UPI CALGARY, Alberta, Oct. 28 (UPI) — An uncertain market and the lack of infrastructure needed to move Canadian oil to the global market means it’s time to scrap an Alberta oil project, Shell said. Royal Dutch Shell said it would no longer continue with the construction of its Carmon Creek project in Alberta, Canada, and take a $2 billion write down for the loss. Sanctioned in 2013, the company said it had moved in early 2015 to retool construction operations at the oil sands project, which was expected to yield 80,000 barrels of oil per day. Costs at a time of lingering market weakness and the lack of pipelines needed to move Canadian oil to the global market forced the company to reconsider its priorities. […]

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Canada Oil-Sands Giant Suncor Posts Loss

CALGARY, Alberta— Suncor Energy Inc., SU 2.89 % Canada’s largest crude-oil producer, reported a third-quarter net loss on a foreign exchange-related charge and slumping crude oil prices, setting a grim tone for the Canadian energy industry’s earnings. The Calgary company posted a net loss of 376 million Canadian dollars ($284.9 million), or 26 Canadian cents a share, in the three months ended Sept. 30. That compared with a net profit of C$919 million, or C$0.63 a share, in the same period last year. Suncor blamed a C$786 million foreign exchange loss linked to U.S. dollar denominated debt from a weakening of the Canadian currency. On an operating, or adjusted, basis that excludes one-time items, Suncor posted quarterly earnings of C$410 million, or C$0.28 a share, down nearly 69% from the C$1.31 billion, or C$0.89 a share, in the year-earlier period. That was above analysts’ average forecast of C$0.19 a […]

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Is it the Beginning of the End for the Alberta Oilsands?

A new report from Oil Change International challenges industry’s common assumption that the continued production of oilsands crude is inevitable. The report, Lockdown: The End of Growth in the Tar Sands , argues industry projections — to expand oilsands production from a current 2.1 million barrels per day to as much as 5.8 million barrels per day by 2035 — rely on high prices, public licence and a growing pipeline infrastructure — all of which are currently endangered in a carbon-constrained world. As the report’s authors find, growing opposition to oil production — especially in the oilsands, which is among the most carbon intensive oil in the world — has significantly altered public perception of pipelines, a change amplified by the cross-continental battles against the Enbridge Northern Gateway , Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain , TransCanada Energy East and TransCanada Keystone XL pipelines. According to the report’s authors, production growth […]

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