Page 8 - NorthAmOil Week 23

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Provincial authorities had hoped to offer the Offshore disruptions as North American on-
site to investors earlier this year but postponed shore rigs fall
the sale, citing unfavourable market conditions. Oil producers in the US Gulf of Mexico were
Vaca Muerta fields have seen production levels preparing to resume disrupted operations this
decline since April, when the national oil com- week, after Tropical Storm Cristobal passed
pany (NOC) YPF reined in upstream operations through the region, bringing high winds and
at Loma Campana and other sites. heavy rains. (See: Gulf producers resume activity
At the same time, Ecuador is facing some after storm, page 12)
short-term setbacks, owing to continued prob- Offshore producers were reported to have
lems with the SOTE oil pipeline system. Offi- evacuated 188 Gulf facilities, and shut in 635,000
cials in Quito have declared force majeure on barrels per day (bpd) of oil and 878mn cubic
Petroecuador’s production operations, and the feet (25mn cubic metres) per day of natural gas
NOC is building a bypass link in a bid to improve according to federal data.
conditions. Among those shutting in some of their out-
put was BP, which reduced production at its
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping Thunder Horse, Atlantis and Na Kika platforms.
Latin America’s oil and gas sector, then please click Royal Dutch Shell said on June 8 that its produc-
here for NewsBase’s LatAmOil Monitor. tion had been unaffected by the storm, but that
it would resume drilling activity and redeploy
Middle East – Oil production breakthrough; nonessential workers that had been evacuated
Aramco sets prices for July from the region.
The week’s developments in the Middle East have Murphy Oil also said on June 8 that it
centred on the milestone of Saturday’s important was beginning to return workers to offshore
meeting of OPEC and its allies, who managed facilities.
to break through the temporary difficulties and Onshore, meanwhile, the active oil and gas
deadlock to reach agreement to extend the oil rig count has continued to fall and dropped to
production cuts through to the end of July. On 284 in the week up to June 5 – marking a thir-
this news, oil prices edged higher and this was teenth straight week of declines. This compares
followed by Saudi Aramco issuing its prices for with 793 active oil and gas rigs reported in the
That there is still July; these prices exceeded market expectations first week of March.
Oil rigs have accounted for the majority of the
and suggested that the oil market was now walk-
a long way to go ing away from the dire situation which envel- decline, falling by 476 over this period, while the
is highlighted by oped it in March/April. gas rig count fell by 33.
Also last week, data emerged showing how
That there is still a long way to go is high-
the perils facing lighted by the perils facing OPEC’s second-larg- robust energy trade within North America was
est member – Iraq. The country’ prime minister in 2019. The US Energy Information Admin-
OPEC’s second- has made an encouraging start to his tenure istration (EIA) reported on June 5 that Canada
but he now has to try to find a way through the was the largest source of US energy imports last
largest member inexorable ripples of the massive cut to the state’s year, and was second only behind Mexico as a

– Iraq. revenues from the collapse in the price of oil. To destination for US energy exports. (See: US-Can-
avoid financial collapse and public service melt-
ada energy trade strong over past decade, page 12)
down is his government’s top priority. Citing data from the US Census Bureau, the
A reminder of former times comes with pos- EIA said that energy accounted for $85bn or 27%
itive news from Abu Dhabi, where ADNOC is of the value of all US imports from Canada in
looking to close a deal to sell a stake in its domes- 2019. Meanwhile, the US exported $23bn worth
tic gas pipeline network, and Oman, where PDO of energy to Canada last year, accounting for
has said it aims to increase its crude production around 8% of all US exports to Canada. This was
to 700,000 bpd by 2024. the second highest level ever recorded, after 2014.

If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
the Middle East’s oil and gas sector then please click the North American oil and gas sector, then please click
here for NewsBase’s MEOG Monitor. here for NewsBase’s NorthAmOil Monitor.™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 23 11•June•2020