Page 10 - FSUOGM Week 43

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Donald Trump extended the terms of seven 2.84mn barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd),
long-term LNG export authorisations until with oil accounting for 2.28mn barrels per day
2050. The move came as no surprise, following (bpd) of the total. This is 2.5% above the original
on from the US Department of Energy’s (DoE) target figure of 2.7mn boepd, including 2.2mn
policy statement in July that it would permit bpd of oil, the NOC noted.
LNG export authorisations to be extended. Petrobras also reported that it had extracted
The US has only been exporting LNG since some 2.952mn boepd of oil, NGLs and gas in
2016, but has rapidly gained market share as new the third quarter of 2020, up by 5.35% on the
liquefaction capacity has come online, mainly on second-quarter figure of 2.802mn boepd. It
the Gulf Coast. attributed the rise to the rapid restoration of
However, efforts by US LNG producers to development operations at fields that suspended
strike new offtake deals are running into obsta- production in response to the coronavirus
cles, not only because of the oversupplied mar- (COVID-19) pandemic.
ket, but also because of environmental concerns. Venezuela, by contrast, is under considerable
(See EurOil) The fight, involving a potential pressure. The country has informed OPEC that
supply deal that France’s Engie was reportedly it produced 397,000 bpd of oil in September. This
due to strike with the US’ NextDecade before it is the lowest monthly figure recorded since 2003
was delayed by political pressure, illustrates the and is also considerably below this year’s record
greater environmental challenges LNG produc- high of 882,000 bpd in January. Output levels
ers may have to contend with in the future. have been trending down since the beginning of
Qatar, meanwhile, has taken another step the year and are not likely to recover any time
forward by reportedly selected Honeywell as soon.
the main instrument and control contractor to This decline has occurred partly because the
support the North Field East expansion project. US sanctions regime has prevented state-owned
In another illustration of the growing impor- PdVSA from obtaining the parts and equip-
tance of environmental issues to the industry, ment needed to repair and maintain its produc-
state-owned Qatar Petroleum (QP) has also tion and refining facilities. Sanctions have also
sought to talk up the comparative low emis- impaired Venezuela’s ability to sell its crude on
sions-intensity of its expanded LNG operations. world markets, as evidenced by the fact that the
The company is building a carbon capture and country’s oil inventories have risen by 84% over
storage (CCS) facility to capture carbon dioxide the last few weeks.
(CO2) from its LNG production.
These developments raise questions about If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
how Australia – where LNG plants are typically the Latin American oil and gas sector then please click
more carbon-intensive than similar facilities in here for NewsBase’s LatAmOil Monitor .
other parts of the world – will deal with their car-
bon footprint in an increasingly environmentally Iraq plods on despite delays
conscious world. Iraq’s oil minister this week said that the country
still intends to increase oil production capacity to
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping 7mn barrels per day (bpd) by 2027 despite facing
the global LNG sector then please click here for significant issues in financing new projects and
NewsBase’s GLNG Monitor . delays at those already in the pipeline. The min-
ister expressed confidence that despite delays
Latin America: A tale of two producers and payment issues, IOCs will remain, with-
Two South American states are facing very dif- out any developments being cancelled or post-
ferent conditions on the upstream front. poned. Meanwhile, the ministry has engaged in
In Brazil, the national oil company (NOC) discussions with France’s Total over plans for the
Petrobras has said it expects to surpass its company to take over the development of one or
original production goals. In a report on its more gas projects in the Western Desert and near
third-quarter performance, the state-owned Basra.
firm said its crude oil, natural gas liquid (NGL) Russia’s Lukoil also said this week that it
and natural gas output was on track to reach intends to increase its oil production in Iraq

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 43 28•October•2020