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The Malaysian company intends to use the rig to US-based super-majors ExxonMobil and
sink one well at the Sloanea section of the block Chevron also posted rare losses, which reached
and will probably begin drilling in the fourth $1.1bn and $8.3bn respectively. For ExxonMo-
quarter of this year. Equity in Block 52 is split bil, this was the second consecutive quarterly
50:50 between Petronas and ExxonMobil (US), loss after decades of profits. Chevron’s loss,
which is already a major player in neighbouring meanwhile, was its largest in recent history,
Guyana’s offshore zone. exacerbated by $5.6bn worth of oil and gas pro-
In other news, the Energía Costa Azul LNG duction write-downs. Canadian producers were
project is still on hold. California-based Sem- not spared either, with Imperial Oil, ExxonMo-
pra Energy and its Mexican subsidiary IEnova bil’s subsidiary north of the border, and Husky
had hoped to take a final investment decision Energy among those reporting second-quarter
(FID) on the scheme by the end of June but are losses over the past week.
still waiting for Mexico’s government to issue an However, some bright spots also emerged, Oil production
export permit. Company executives say they are as US oil prices continued to hold steady above
still optimistic about pushing the project for- $40 per barrel and a number of the companies from OPEC
ward soon, even though Mexican government reporting their results also said they were in the
bureaucracies are operating more slowly because process of restoring output they curtailed during member states
of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. the second quarter.
Among these was ConocoPhillips, which has increased by
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping said it expected to have most of its curtailed 1mn bpd
the Latin American oil and gas sector then please click output restored by the end of September, hav-
here for NewsBase’s LatAmOil Monitor. ing cut about a third of its production in April
and recently started ramping it back up. And in
Quarterly losses mount in North America Canada, Husky said it had the capacity to ramp
Second-quarter losses being announced by up production over the course of the current
North American producers have continued to quarter.
pile up in recent days. Virtually no company is In other welcome news, the total US rig count
expected to emerge unscathed from the quar- stayed flat in the week up to July 31, having
ter, which likely saw the worst of the oil and gas declined for the previous 20 weeks. The loss of
downturn. one active oil rig was offset by the addition of a
Notable names joining the growing ranks gas rig. The rate of rig count declines has slowed
of those reporting second-quarter losses over in recent weeks, but while market conditions are
the past week have included ConocoPhillips, improving, producers may be hesitant to ramp
the US’ largest independent producer. On an up new drilling too quickly.
adjusted basis, excluding special items, the com-
pany posted a loss of $1.0bn compared with an If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
adjusted profit of $1.1bn in the same quarter of the North American oil and gas sector then please click
2019. here for NewsBase’s NorthAmOil Monitor.™

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