Page 17 - AfrOil Week 33 2021

AfrOil NEWSBASE ROUNDUP GLOBAL (NRG) AfrOil
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.
AsianOil: Woodside, BHP to merge
Australia’s largest independent Woodside Petro- leum has announced its planned merger with BHP Petroleum, the upstream arm of leading Australian miner BHP. Woodside said on August 17 that the two companies had entered into a merger commitment to combine their respective oil and gas portfolios via an all-scrip deal.
DMEA: Imports and gas deals
Reports emerged this week suggesting that Saudi Aramco is seeking to significantly improve upon the $12.4bn it achieved with its oil pipelines when it inks a similar deal focused on its network of gas conduits. Sources close to proceedings were quoted by Reuters as saying that the com- pany has a target of raising at least $17bn when it leases out a stake in the anticipated Aramco Gas Pipelines Co. (AGPC).
EurOil: UK unveils H2 strategy
The UK government unveiled its hydrogen strategy this week following recent delays. The strategy commits the country to developing 5 GW of low-carbon hydrogen capacity by 2030. However, the government said further details on market mechanisms and carbon intensity defini- tions to support hydrogen development would not be released until 2022.
FSU OGM: Rosneft’s Q2-2021 profit boost
Russia’s state-run Rosneft has posted a 55% quar- ter-on-quarter jump in its April-June net profit, with the company attributing the rebound to stronger international oil prices. The oil major said on August 13 that its second-quarter profit amounted to RUB233bn ($3.18bn), up from
RUB149bn ($2.03bn) in the first quarter.
GLNG: Australia-China LNG record
Australian LNG exports to China have risen to record highs despite ongoing trade tensions between the two countries. A monthly report from consultancy EnergyQuest, which cited cus- toms data, said Australia had supplied a record 30.7mn tonnes of LNG to China in the 2020-21 fiscal year, which runs from July 1 to June 30. This marks a 7.3% year-on-year rise in shipments and means that China has overtaken Japan as Australia’s largest buyer of LNG for the first time.
LatAmOil: Guyana seeks oversight
Irfaan Ali, the president of Guyana, said last week that his administration intended to establish a new government agency to oversee the country’s fledgling oil industry before the end of the year. In a public address, Ali indicated that the agency would be known as the Petroleum Commission. The new body will be responsible for oversight of oil and gas projects, as well as revenue from hydrocarbon sales.
MEOG: EDO’s debt raise and Iraqi drilling
State-owned Energy Development Oman (EDO) has raised $2.5bn worth of debt in its first financing campaign. The company will use the funds to cover the state’s financial requirements relating to Petroleum Development Oman’s (PDO) stake in Block 6 – the Sultanate’s largest concession – which has now been transferred to EDO. Block 6 operations are estimated to cost Muscat $5-6bn per year.
NorthAmOil: Industry groups file lawsuit
US oil industry groups have filed a lawsuit against the administration of US President Joe Biden for halting oil and gas lease sales on federal land and in federal waters. Biden had pledged as part of his election campaign to stop issuing new federal drilling leases, and the auctions were suspended earlier this year while the US Department of the Interior (DoI) carried out a review of the entire federal leasing programme.™
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Week 33 18•August•2021 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P17