Page 10 - FSUOGM Week 50 2020

FSUOGM NRG FSUOGM

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.

The Brazilian gas industry has long been gas infrastructure is becoming increasingly
under the exclusive control of Petrobras, the problematic.
national oil company (NOC). But the new bill
aims to make room for private investors, partly If you’d like to read more about the key events
by limiting vertical integration (that is, by bar- shaping the Middle East’s oil and gas sector then
ring gas producers from acting as distributors please click here for NewsBase’s MEOG Monitor .
and vice versa). It also swaps the existing con-
cession regime for gas distribution for a system NorthAmOil: Canadian decarbonisation,
of authorisations that will be overseen by the US layoffs
National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and The end of the year has seen a significant policy
Biofuels (ANP). Government officials hope the development emerge in Canada, while news of
latter measure will help eliminate some bureau- layoffs continued to emanate from the US’ oil
cratic hurdles to the construction of new gas and gas industry.
pipelines. In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
has stepped up his decarbonisation push, unveil-
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping ing a strategy that includes a gradual increase in
the Latin American oil and gas sector then please click the country’s carbon tax over the coming decade.
here for NewsBase’s LatAmOil Monitor . His plan, which is aimed at Canada meeting its
2030 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions target
MEOG: Attacks and unrest bring 2020 to after missing previous ones, centres on the coun-
an appropriate close try’s carbon tax increasing by CAD15 ($12) per
Oil prices have rebounded in recent weeks as a tonne per year between 2023 and 2030.
string of attacks on oil infrastructure and politi- The current price is CAD30 ($24) per tonne
cal unrest have reintroduced an element of geo- and under the plan the price hikes would con-
political risk into pricing. tinue until it hits CAD170 ($133) per tonne.
In Kurdistan, usually the least restive part of The plan seeks to put Canada on track to cut
Iraq, protests about unpaid public sector salaries GHG emissions by around 40% below 2005 lev-
have boiled over and threatened Erbil’s vital oil els by 2030, compared with the previous goal of
revenues. With public servants in the region not 30%. But there is opposition to the plan, with oil
having received their salaries in full since April, production leader Alberta saying it would chal-
the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has lenge the tax hikes in court.
resorted to banning protests and travel between Regardless of how successful Alberta’s chal-
cities, as well as restricting internet access in an lenge is, the new target appears set to complicate
attempt to slow the spread of unrest. So desperate the path forward for the province, which was hit
is the KRG’s plight that it has agreed to provide hard by the oil price downturn this year.
the federal oil marketing firm with ‘unspecified In the US, meanwhile, it emerged last week
quantities’ of oil in exchange for its 12.67% share that Parsley Energy would lay off most of its
of the Iraqi budget. workers in Austin, Texas as part of its upcoming
Attacks have continued to plague Saudi Ara- sale to Pioneer Natural Resources. The $4.5bn
bia’s Red Sea coast, with Jeddah the site of an oil transaction comes as consolidation picks up
tanker explosion this week. While there were pace in the US oil and gas industry. A number of
no casualties, the attack is the latest in a string mergers are currently underway, but while these
of small but threatening moves against Saudi may help companies to survive, the same cannot
Aramco’s oil infrastructure and follows hits on necessarily be said for their workforces.
tankers, a distribution centre and other infra- The Parsley layoffs include 234 workers, Reu-
structure in recent months. ters reported, citing a notice to the Texas Work-
Meanwhile, a pipeline carrying crude from force Commission, though it added that some
the supergiant Marun oilfield to the city of of those employees would be offered jobs with
Isfahan caught fire this week following a land- Pioneer in Las Colinas or Midland, Texas.
slide. The incident appears to have been caused
by the integrity of the conduit rather than an If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
attack, though this will come as little consola- the North American oil and gas sector then please click
tion to NIOC, whose vast and ageing oil and here for NewsBase’s NorthAmOil Monitor .™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 50 16•December•2020