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involved in vote-fixing, bribes and other illegal concerns about announcements made by the
acts. Meanwhile, Loyoza himself is also facing Turkish President, the find is transformational
corruption charges. for a country which is reliant on imports for
In Brazil, prosecutors have accused two peo- nearly all of its energy needs.
ple of obtaining confidential market information As Saudi Aramco contends with a massively
from state-run Petrobras to benefit Denmark’s reduced capital budget, the company is reported
AP Moller-Maersk, a major player in the global to have cancelled its tender for maintenance
shipping industry. In a statement, judicial offi- work at the giant offshore Marjan oilfield. Citing
cials alleged that Viggo Andersen, a former sources close to the company’s long-term agree-
Maersk executive who was based in Brazil, ment (LTA) programme, Upstream said that the
had taken part in a scheme to bribe a Petrobras contract release purchase order 66 (CRPO-66)
executive through an intermediary. The scheme engineering, procurement and construction
caused Petrobras to incur at least $31.7mn in (EPC) project had been called off.
losses, the statement said.
In Peru, disagreements between the govern- If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
ment and indigenous communities continue to the Middle East’s oil and gas sector then please click
have an impact on oil-producing areas in Loreto here for NewsBase’s MEOG Monitor.
Province. Lima is moving forward with its inves-
tigation of a deadly clash between policemen and North America: Gulf Coast braces for storms
indigenous protesters at the Bretana oilfield ear- Offshore oil and gas producers in the US Gulf
lier this month. The probe appears to be making of Mexico – as well as refiners on the coast –
enough progress that the demonstrators are will- were suspending operations over the week-
ing to let PeruPetro, the national oil and gas reg- end as two storms in the region threatened to
ulator, resume shipments through the Northern cause disruptions. Tropical Storm Marco was
Oil Pipeline (ONP). For its part, PetroTal (Can- downgraded to a tropical depression the day it
ada), the operator of Bretana, hopes to resume made landfall, on August 24. However, Tropi-
production before the end of the month. cal Storm Laura strengthened into Category 4
Meanwhile, Argentina’s Energy Secretary hurricane this week as it approached the Gulf
Sergio Lanziani has stepped down from his Coast, posing a serious threat to parts of Loui-
post at the request of Production Minister Mat- siana and Texas. It made landfall overnight on
ias Kulfas. Dario Martinez, a legislator from August 26-27. (See: Gulf Coast braces for Hur-
the hydrocarbon-rich Neuquen Province, has ricane Laura, page 17)
been named as Lanziani’s replacement. His first The US Bureau of Safety and Environmental
task will be to address the harsh impact that the Enforcement (BSEE), the offshore regulator, esti-
coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has had on mated that roughly 84.3% of the Gulf’s oil pro-
Argentina’s oil and gas industry. duction had been shut in as of August 26, as well
as 60.9% of the region’s gas output.
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping Companies that had shut in production
the Latin American oil and gas sector then please click and evacuated platforms included BP, Chev-
here for NewsBase’s LatAmOil Monitor. ron, Royal Dutch Shell and Norway’s Equinor.
Onshore, meanwhile, Motiva Enterprises and
Middle East: Deals, discoveries, budget cuts Valero Energy were among those to shut some
Deals were signed last week between the Iraqi of their refining operations. Reuters estimated
government and five US energy companies on August 25 that nine refining facilities, with
that focus on oil production, gas capture and a combined capacity of 2.9mn barrels per day
electricity generation. The news comes as Iraq’s (bpd), were in the process of being shut in.
power sector continues to struggle particularly The disruption comes just as US producers
amid record high temperatures, while Bagh- were getting back on their feet after the severe
dad remains reliant on neighbouring Iran for industry downturn earlier this year. Data from
gas and electricity. Iraq has said it will reduce oilfield services provider Baker Hughes showed
imports from Iran, but this will depend greatly that the total active oil and gas rig count in the
on the progress made in capturing gas and grid US rose in the week up to August 21 for the first
connectivity. time since early March. (See: US rig count rises for
Meanwhile, Turkey this week announced its first time since March, page 18)The oil rig count
largest ever find at the Tuna-1 well. The discov- increased by 11 on the previous week, while the
ery has been estimated at 320bn cubic metres gas rig count fell by one. The Permian Basin
and renamed Sakarya. While there are the usual accounted for the majority of the increase.™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 34 27•August•2020