Page 8 - NorthAmOil Week 50 2020

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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.

National Assembly, which approved it in though this will come as little consolation to
September. NIOC, whose vast and ageing oil and gas infra-
The Brazilian gas industry has long been structure is becoming increasingly problematic.
under the exclusive control of Petrobras, the
national oil company (NOC). But the new bill If you’d like to read more about the key events
aims to make room for private investors, partly shaping the Middle East’s oil and gas sector then
by limiting vertical integration (that is, by bar- please click here for NewsBase’s MEOG Monitor .
ring gas producers from acting as distributors
and vice versa). It also swaps the existing con- NorthAmOil: Canadian decarbonisation,
cession regime for gas distribution for a system US layoffs
of authorisations that will be overseen by the The end of the year has seen a significant policy
National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and development emerge in Canada, while news of
Biofuels (ANP). Government officials hope the layoffs continued to emanate from the US’ oil
latter measure will help eliminate some bureau- and gas industry.
cratic hurdles to the construction of new gas In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
pipelines. has stepped up his decarbonisation push, unveil-
ing a strategy that includes a gradual increase in
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping the country’s carbon tax over the coming decade.
the Latin American oil and gas sector then please click (See: Trudeau steps up decarbonisation efforts,
here for NewsBase’s LatAmOil Monitor . page 9) His plan, which is aimed at Canada meet-
ing its 2030 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
MEOG: Attacks and unrest bring 2020 to target after missing previous ones, centres on
an appropriate close the country’s carbon tax increasing by CAD15
Oil prices have rebounded in recent weeks as a ($12) per 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 ($134) 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. (See: Parsley
bia’s Red Sea coast, with Jeddah the site of an oil prepares to lay off staff as part of merger, page 15)
tanker explosion this week. While there were The $4.5bn transaction comes as consolidation
no casualties, the attack is the latest in a string picks up pace in the US oil and gas industry. A
of small but threatening moves against Saudi number of mergers are currently underway,
Aramco’s oil infrastructure and follows hits on but while these may help companies to survive,
tankers, a distribution centre and other infra- the same cannot necessarily be said for their
structure in recent months. workforces.
Meanwhile, a pipeline carrying crude from The Parsley layoffs include 234 workers, Reu-
the supergiant Marun oilfield to the city of Isfa- ters reported, citing a notice to the Texas Work-
han caught fire this week following a landslide. force Commission, though it added that some
The incident appears to have been caused by the of those employees would be offered jobs with
integrity of the conduit rather than an attack, Pioneer in Las Colinas or Midland, Texas.™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 50 17•December•2020