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Panama Weighs Another Canal Expansion at Centennial Mark

A century after the U.S. steamship Ancon first sailed through the Panama Canal, a $5.3 billion expansion delayed by bickering contractors and angry workers is nearing completion. The problem is it might not be big enough. With the expansion 16 months behind schedule, canal administrator Jorge Quijano said officials are studying whether to dig a fourth set of locks to handle a growing fleet of super-sized ships. Those include the 400-meter-long “Triple E” vessels capable of carrying more than 18,000 containers, four times more than current ships passing through the canal. “We are always analyzing the market and as soon as we can economically justify it we will begin,” said Manuel Benitez, deputy administrator of the Panama Canal Authority, adding that he thinks the current expansion is sufficient for now. “If that changes and the demand exists we are ready to begin.” Panamanian officials today will celebrate the anniversary […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Brazil considers LNG options with Rosneft

Brazilian energy company HRT said Friday it was working with Russian energy company Rosneft on a work plan for the monetization of liquefied natural gas. Startup HRT in July signed memorandum of understanding with the Brazilian subsidiary of Rosneft and Brazilian state-owned energy company Petróleo Brasileiro, known also as Petrobras, for the monetization of gas in the Solimoes basin in the Amazonian jungle. HRT in its latest earnings report said the parties are working on ways to make LNG envisioned under the agreement a reality. "In the coming months, HRT, Rosneft and Petrobras will submit a work plan for the gas monetization project that will establish the steps and responsibilities, prioritizing the options in the scope of natural gas converted to LNG and the electric power generation, both of which are critical inputs for the development of the region and the country," HRT said in its report. The Brazilian […]

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Drought conditions in key hydropower region prompt LNG buying in Brazil

Drought conditions in Brazil’s Southeast-Central West region are putting pressure on state-owned oil and gas company Petrobras to seek out prompt and near-term LNG cargoes to supplement the country’s power supply, sources said Monday. Petrobras was recently heard in the market lifting an FOB cargo from Qatar for an undisclosed price. The 157,000 cubic meter Wilpride, currently under Petrobras’ control, loaded the cargo Friday from the port of Ras Laffan, Qatar. The vessel is currently in the Gulf of Oman and is expected to arrive at the Bay of All Saints terminal in Salvador, Bahia, by late August. Petrobras has also been heard in the market looking for cargoes for FOB lifting or delivery in September, October and possibly November, ahead of the rainy season which runs from December through April. The recent push to shore up the country’s power supply comes as reservoir levels in Brazil’s Southeast-Central West […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Venezuelan Energy Company Investigated in U.S.

Federal and New York City prosecutors have opened preliminary investigations into a Venezuelan company that became one of that country’s leading builders of power plants during the administration of President Hugo Chávez , as well as into a Missouri-based company which played a key role in its success, people familiar with the matter say. The U.S. Department of Justice and the Manhattan District Attorneys’ office are probing Derwick Associates, a Venezuelan company that was awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts in little more than a year to build power plants in Venezuela shortly after the country’s power grid began to sputter in 2009, the people familiar with the matter said. ProEnergy Services, a Sedalia, Mo.-based engineering, procurement and construction company which sold dozens of turbines to Derwick and helped build the plants, is also under investigation, these people say. The probes are in their initial phases, […]

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Petrobras Profit Misses Estimates as Crude Exports Slide

Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR4) , the biggest oil producer in deep waters, posted an unexpected profit decline in the second quarter after its fuel imports surged and crude exports fell. Net income fell 20 percent to 4.96 billion reais ($2.2 billion), or 0.38 reais a share, from 6.2 billion reais, or 48 centavos, a year earlier, the Rio de Janeiro-based company said yesterday in a statement. That trailed the 55-centavo average of 12 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg, making this the third time in four quarters that Petrobras missed forecasts. Rising Brazilian demand for gasoline and diesel that Petrobras sells at a discount relative to international prices is leading the state-run producer to export less crude and increase refinery output. It cut sales to overseas markets by 14 percent from a year earlier, while the refining boost wasn’t enough to prevent a 56 percent surge in fuel imports. The […]

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Petrobras’s New Oil Stems Decline

Petrobras’ oil production from frontier fields offshore is soaring. Pictured, a platform prepares for its first day working a ‘pre-salt’ field in 2010. Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO—When Brazil’s state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA disclosed its biggest-ever oil find, in 2007, then-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva quipped that the discovery proved that God is Brazilian. New production figures are making believers out of many in the industry. Output from the "pre-salt" fields has passed 500,000 barrels of oil a day, nearly triple that of 2012, and now accounts for nearly a quarter of the company’s total production of two million barrels a day. It is a quick ramp-up for Petrobras, and is taking place in one of the most challenging oil patches in the world. The deposits lie nearly 200 miles off Brazil’s southeastern coast, buried deep below the sea floor under a thick layer of salt, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Petrobras's New Oil Stems Decline

Petrobras’ oil production from frontier fields offshore is soaring. Pictured, a platform prepares for its first day working a ‘pre-salt’ field in 2010. Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO—When Brazil’s state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA disclosed its biggest-ever oil find, in 2007, then-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva quipped that the discovery proved that God is Brazilian. New production figures are making believers out of many in the industry. Output from the "pre-salt" fields has passed 500,000 barrels of oil a day, nearly triple that of 2012, and now accounts for nearly a quarter of the company’s total production of two million barrels a day. It is a quick ramp-up for Petrobras, and is taking place in one of the most challenging oil patches in the world. The deposits lie nearly 200 miles off Brazil’s southeastern coast, buried deep below the sea floor under a thick layer of salt, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Venezuela Says Citgo Assets Worth More Than $10 Billion

Petroleos de Venezuela SA , the Latin American nation’s state-owned crude producer, said the U.S. oil refining and marketing assets it’s seeking to sell are worth more than $10 billion. “Their value is much, much more,” Rafael Ramirez , president of the oil producer known as PDVSA, told reporters yesterday. He said the company is receiving offers for assets of Houston-based Citgo Petroleum Corp., without providing details on the value of the bids. Citgo owns three refineries capable of handling about 749,000 barrels a day in Louisiana , Texas and Illinois . It also operates the sixth-largest U.S. retail gasoline chain through about 5,900 branded stations, according to the Arlington, Virginia-based National Association of Convenience Stores. Argus Media reported July 24 that the government has received offers in the range of $10 billion to $15 billion for the assets. “We are not a refining company, we’re an oil-producing company,” […]

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Venezuelans struggle with shortages

o A genie appears from a lamp in the hands of an astonished Venezuelan boy to declare: ”You can ask for anything – except toilet paper!” The world’s highest inflation and shortages of basics from milk to toilet roll are really no laughing matter for Venezuelans, but they find solace in a thriving comedy scene lampooning the governance behind the economic strife. Through cartoons like the genie, stand-up comedy, and online satire, humour has become a prominent and poignant form of criticism as mainstream media exercise more self-censorship. ”Despite oil at $100 a barrel, Venezuela is living through the worst economic crisis of its history … It’s the Midas touch in reverse,” stand-up comic Laureano Marquez told Reuters before entertaining a 600-strong audience at a Caracas theatre. His 90-minute routine delivered a witty critique of problems from food queues and medicine shortages, to government corruption and skewed courts. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple