Page 8 - GLNG Week 50 2020

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Brazil’s Senate have
voted to approve the
basic text of a bill
designed to enable the
further reform of the
country’s natural gas
sector.

National Assembly, which approved it in NIOC, whose vast and ageing oil and gas infra-
September. structure is becoming increasingly problematic.
The Brazilian gas industry has long been
under the exclusive control of Petrobras, the If you’d like to read more about the key events
national oil company (NOC). But the new bill shaping the Middle East’s oil and gas sector then
aims to make room for private investors, partly please click here for NewsBase’s MEOG Monitor .
by limiting vertical integration (that is, by barring
gas producers from acting as distributors and NorthAmOil: Canadian decarbonisation,
vice versa). It also swaps the existing concession US layoffs
regime for gas distribution for a system of author- The end of the year has seen a significant policy
isations that will be overseen by the National development emerge in Canada, while news of
Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels layoffs continued to emanate from the US’ oil
(ANP). Government officials hope the latter and gas industry.
measure will help eliminate some bureaucratic In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
hurdles to the construction of new gas pipelines. has stepped up his decarbonisation push, unveil-
ing a strategy that includes a gradual increase in
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping the country’s carbon tax over the coming decade.
the Latin American oil and gas sector then please click His plan, which is aimed at Canada meeting its
here for NewsBase’s LatAmOil Monitor . 2030 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions target
after missing previous ones, centres on the coun-
MEOG: Attacks and unrest bring 2020 to try’s carbon tax increasing by CAD15 ($12) per
an appropriate close tonne per year between 2023 and 2030.
Oil prices have rebounded in recent weeks as a The current price is CAD30 ($24) per tonne
string of attacks on oil infrastructure and politi- and under the plan the price hikes would con-
cal unrest have reintroduced an element of geo- tinue until it hits CAD170 ($134) per tonne.
political risk into pricing. The plan seeks to put Canada on track to cut
In Kurdistan, usually the least restive part of GHG emissions by around 40% below 2005 lev-
Iraq, protests about unpaid public sector salaries els by 2030, compared with the previous goal of
have boiled over and threatened Erbil’s vital oil 30%. But there is opposition to the plan, with oil
revenues. With public servants in the region not production leader Alberta saying it would chal-
having received their salaries in full since April, lenge the tax hikes in court.
the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has Regardless of how successful Alberta’s chal-
resorted to banning protests and travel between lenge is, the new target appears set to complicate
cities, as well as restricting internet access in an the path forward for the province, which was hit
attempt to slow the spread of unrest. So desperate hard by the oil price downturn this year.
is the KRG’s plight that it has agreed to provide In the US, meanwhile, it emerged last week
the federal oil marketing firm with ‘unspecified that Parsley Energy would lay off most of its
quantities’ of oil in exchange for its 12.67% share workers in Austin, Texas as part of its upcoming
of the Iraqi budget. sale to Pioneer Natural Resources. The $4.5bn
Attacks have continued to plague Saudi Ara- transaction comes as consolidation picks up
bia’s Red Sea coast, with Jeddah the site of an oil pace in the US oil and gas industry. A number of
tanker explosion this week. While there were mergers are currently underway, but while these
no casualties, the attack is the latest in a string may help companies to survive, the same cannot
of small but threatening moves against Saudi necessarily be said for their workforces.
Aramco’s oil infrastructure and follows hits on The Parsley layoffs include 234 workers, Reu-
tankers, a distribution centre and other infra- ters reported, citing a notice to the Texas Work-
structure in recent months. force Commission, though it added that some
Meanwhile, a pipeline carrying crude from of those employees would be offered jobs with
the supergiant Marun oilfield to the city of Isfa- Pioneer in Las Colinas or Midland, Texas.
han caught fire this week following a landslide.
The incident appears to have been caused by the If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping the
integrity of the conduit rather than an attack, North American oil and gas sector then please click here
though this will come as little consolation to for NewsBase’s NorthAmOil Monitor. ™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 50 18•December•2020