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Petrovietnam Suspends Venezuela Oil Production

Vietnam Oil & Gas Group, or Petrovietnam, has suspended production of crude oil at a block in Venezuela, citing a tough economic conditions. "Basically, we are just slowing things down, and we haven’t decided to withdraw from the project yet," said Pham Ngoc Khue, head of the investment and development division of PVEP, the Petrovietnam unit that jointly operates the Junin-2 block in Venezuela’s Orinoco belt with Petróleos de Venezuela SA. "The investment environment there is not suitable for us right now—and even for several other foreign investors," Mr. Khue said Tuesday. PVEP previously said the project started producing oil in October 2012, with an initial target of 200,000 barrels of crude a day by 2016. The block is Petrovietnam’s only operation in Venezuela. A Petrovietnam official said on condition of anonymity that skyrocketing inflation in Venezuela makes the cost of doing business there too high. Consumer prices in […]

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Talks Fail to Resolve Dispute Over Panama Canal Expansion Costs

The Panama Canal Authority and a consortium of international companies overseeing a multibillion-dollar construction project to widen the canal met on Tuesday but failed to resolve a dispute over huge cost overruns that threaten to derail the historic undertaking. The Panama Canal opened in the summer of 1914, and 100 years later the 50-mile waterway is two-thirds of the way through a massive expansion project that would allow ever-larger ships to pass through. The project could quadruple the government’s $1 billion in annual revenue, which comes mostly from toll charges. But GUPC, the consortium of construction firms led by Spain’s Sacyr SA SCYR.MC -2.42% Sacyr S.A. Spain: Madrid € 3.46 -0.09 -2.42% Jan. 8, 2014 12:12 pm Volume : 7.42M P/E Ratio N/A Market Cap €1.58 Billion Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee €153,727 01/07/14 Talks Fail to Resolve Dispute … 01/06/14 Spanish Official in Panama to … 01/02/14 […]

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Brazil’s big oil dreams begin to sour

“It’s funny, a few years ago, everybody loved Brazil,” said Roger Tissot, a veteran consultant on Latin America energy. “And now it seems the love is gone.” Brazil once saw itself as an up-and-coming oil power that would help meet the world’s demand, but it now faces a hard reality and might have to scale back its pretensions, former energy officials, oil executives and advisers say. The country’s deep-sea bonanza has suddenly become less alluring to big, rich oil companies that had been excited about Brazil. Other promising prospects around the world have emerged instead, from fields in Africa to the shale deposits unlocked by hydraulic fracking in the United States to the tar sands of Canada. “These companies have the financial muscle and engineering capacity and technologies to move around the world,” said Ramon Espinasa, an oil specialist at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington. “They are able […]

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Companies drill for more oil in Argentina

A successful oil exploration program in Argentina should lead to a promising development opportunity, Andes Energia’s Alejandro Jotayan said Monday. Jotayan, chief executive officer of the company based in London, said its partners at YPF, an energy company in Argentina, started the exploration campaign in the Vaca Muerta, Chachao and Agrio reserve areas in the Neuquen basin. "A successful program will provide Andes and YPF with the opportunity to develop a large and promising area with unconventional and conventional resources potential," he said in a statement published by energy news website Rigzone. Andes said the exploration campaign targets an area already shown to contain oil. Energy consultant group Wood Mackenzie described the Vaca Muerta region as one of the best shale reserve areas in the world. Vaca Muerta, located in Neuquen province, holds 741 million barrels of recoverable oil, the U.S. Energy Information Administration […]

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Petrobras declares commercial potential of two offshore fields

Brazil’s Petrobras energy company said it sent notices to the Brazilian government advising that two offshore oil and gas prospects have commercial potential. Petrobas, formally known as Petroleo Brasileiro, said Thursday it submitted declarations of the commercial potential of the Franco and Sul de Tupi prospects in the energy-rich Santos Basin to the National Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels Agency. Petrobas estimated the Franco prospect, which it wants to rename as the Buzios field, contains about 3.1 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Petrobras said it expects to have five production systems started in the field by 2020. The Sul de Tupi, which the company wants to name the Sul de Lula field, may contain as much as 128 million barrels of oil equivalent, the company said. Petrobas said first oil should come from the Sul de Lula field by the first quarter […]

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Venezuela to raise domestic gas prices?

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro signaled he wants to raise gasoline prices, which are considered among the cheapest in the world at about 5 cents a gallon. "Without a doubt there’s a distortion that we need to correct," Maduro said Wednesday, in reference to the country’s highly subsidized gasoline. His comments came during a rare meeting with opposition political leaders, the Wall Street Journal reports. While the government should continue offering "special" prices for the domestic market, the president said, the subsidy "should be an advantage, not a disadvantage." The gasoline subsidy costs Venezuela about $12.5 billion a year. The president spoke of a "plan that should take us some three years for setting prices of hydrocarbons and their derivatives in the national market." Maduro added it should be a "progressive plan with national consensus." Violent riots erupted the last time the Venezuelan government […]

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BP to Write Off $1 Billion on Failed Well

BP PLC said Wednesday it would write off more than $1 billion in costs related to an unsuccessful Brazilian well, but also said it made a large oil discovery in the deep water Gulf of Mexico. BP said the Pitanga exploration well on Block BM-CAOL-13 in the Camamu-Almada basin, offshore Brazil, found no commercial quantities of oil or gas. The company said it would therefore write off $1.08 billion in costs, of which $850 million relates to the value of the block […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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BP to Write Off $1 Billion on Failed Well

BP PLC said Wednesday it would write off more than $1 billion in costs related to an unsuccessful Brazilian well, but also said it made a large oil discovery in the deep water Gulf of Mexico. BP said the Pitanga exploration well on Block BM-CAOL-13 in the Camamu-Almada basin, offshore Brazil, found no commercial quantities of oil or gas. The company said it would therefore write off $1.08 billion in costs, of which $850 million relates to the value of the […]

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Ecuadoreans Can Attempt to Seize Chevron’s Canada Assets

Ecuadoreans trying to collect a $9.5 billion environmental verdict against Chevron Corp. can attempt to seize the oil giant’s assets in Canada, a Canadian appellate court ruled on Tuesday. The plaintiffs, residents of Ecuador’s jungles, are seeking to enforce a 2011 judgment against Chevron by confiscating its properties in other countries where it operates. In May, a lower court in Ontario held that the Ecuadorean judgment didn’t […]

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Ecuadoreans Can Attempt to Seize Chevron's Canada Assets

Ecuadoreans trying to collect a $9.5 billion environmental verdict against Chevron Corp. can attempt to seize the oil giant’s assets in Canada, a Canadian appellate court ruled on Tuesday. The plaintiffs, residents of Ecuador’s jungles, are seeking to enforce a 2011 judgment against Chevron by confiscating its properties in other countries where it operates. In May, a lower court in Ontario held that the Ecuadorean judgment didn’t […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple