Page 16 - FSUOGM Week 32 2021

FSUOGM NEWSBASE ROUNDUP GLOBAL (NRG) FSUOGM
NewsBase Roundup Global (NRG)
NRG
Welcome to NewsBase’s Roundup Global (NRG), in which the reader is invited to join our team of international editors, who provide a snapshot of some of the key issues affecting their regional beats. We hope you will like NRG's new concise format, but by clicking on the headline link for each section the full text will be available as before.
AfrOil: NOCK Under Fire From Government Auditors
The National Oil Corporation of Kenya (NOCK) is under fire from the government for its shaky finances, with the Office of the Auditor-General (OAG) expressing particular concern about the company’s failure to pay loans from KCB Bank Kenya.
The OAG noted in a report on NOCK’s performance in Fiscal Year 2019/2020 that the state-owned firm had been borrowing far more money than it was capable of repaying.
AsianOil: Senex Enjoys Significant Surat Reserves Upgrade
Australian independent Senex Energy reported a significant upgrade to its natural gas reserves this week following an independent assessment by Netherland Sewell & Associates (NSAI).
The company said on August 9 that its proven (1P) gas reserves in the Surat Basin had been lifted by 24% to 261 PJ (6.8bn cubic metres) as of June 30, while its proven and prob- able (2P) reserves had increased by 4% to 767 PJ (19.98 bcm).
DMEA: Money questions and firefighting
In DMEA this week, we look at concerns about Dangote’s debt burden and fire fighting at facil- ities near Iran’s largest oil export terminal.
Questions are starting to be asked about a potential financial crisis at the nearly-complete Dangote Refinery in Nigeria amid allegations that the developer is struggle to cope with ser- vicing a $7bn credit, with debt rising to $8.4bn by 2025.
Euroil: UK Opposition Calls For End Date For Exploration
The head of the UK’s main opposition party has said the country must have a “hard-edged timetable” for ceasing oil and gas exploration.
Addressing reporters in Glasgow on August 4, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the policy would need to be implemented in a way that protected North Sea jobs. The UK oil industry employs over 30,000 work- ers directly and a figure several times larger indirectly.
GLNG: US LNG Players See More Interest In SPAs, Higher Greenfield Costs
US-based sempra Energy warned in its sec- ond-quarter conference call that construction costs were rising for greenfield liquefaction projects. Meanwhile, fellow US LNG exporter Cheniere Energy highlighted the return of long-term LNG contracts in support of the construction of new liquefaction capacity.
This illustrates the challenges and oppor- tunities for US LNG players as they consider whether to issue final investment decisions (FIDs) on a second wave of liquefaction capac- ity, centred on the Gulf Coast; and brownfield projects may find themselves at more of an advantage as these companies decide what to build next.
LatAmOil: BHP Approves Capex Spending For Trion Project
Australia’s BHP has approved plans to spend more than $250mn on work at Trion, a deep- water field located off the coast of the Mexican state of Tamaulipas.
In a statement, BHP said that its board of directors had approved plans to allocate $258mn in capital expenditures at Trion. The funds will be used to move the project into the front-end engineering and design (FEED) phase, it reported.
MEOG: Big Results And Small Qualifiers
This week’s MEOG covers Saudi Aramco’s bumper results announcement and Kuwait’s prequalification of companies for work on smaller oilfields.
Saudi Aramco this week announced its half-year results that were highlighted by a near quadrupling of Q2 net income com- pared to the same period last year.
NRG NorthAmOil: ExxonMobil Weighs Net Zero Pledge
Super-major ExxonMobil is reportedly con- sidering making a pledge to pursue net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This comes as the company finds itself under growing pressure from investors over its stance on decarbonisation.
ExxonMobil’s CEO, Darren Woods, had previously dismissed net zero targets set by certain European rivals as nothing more than a “beauty competition”, without a tangible plan to achieve such goals. However, last week the Wall Street Journal cited sources familiar with the matter as saying ExxonMobil was consider- ing adopting such a target itself. If it does, this would mark a significant strategic shift by the super-major.
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