Page 8 - GLNG Week 34

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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
investigation of a deadly clash between police- North America: Gulf Coast braces for storms
men and indigenous protesters at the Bretana Offshore oil and gas producers in the US Gulf
oilfield earlier this month. The probe appears to of Mexico – as well as refiners on the coast –
be making enough progress that the demonstra- were suspending operations over the week-
tors are willing to let PeruPetro, the national oil end as two storms in the region threatened to
and gas regulator, resume shipments through cause disruptions. Tropical Storm Marco was
the Northern Oil Pipeline (ONP). For its part, downgraded to a tropical depression the day it
PetroTal (Canada), the operator of Bretana, made landfall, on August 24. However, Tropi-
hopes to resume production before the end of cal Storm Laura strengthened into Category 4
the month. hurricane this week as it approached the Gulf
Meanwhile, Argentina’s Energy Secretary Coast, posing a serious threat to parts of Loui-
Sergio Lanziani has stepped down from his siana and Texas. It made landfall overnight on
post at the request of Production Minister Mat- August 26-27.
ias Kulfas. Dario Martinez, a legislator from The US Bureau of Safety and Environmental
the hydrocarbon-rich Neuquen Province, has Enforcement (BSEE), the offshore regulator, esti-
been named as Lanziani’s replacement. His first mated that roughly 84.3% of the Gulf’s oil pro-
task will be to address the harsh impact that the duction had been shut in as of August 26, as well
coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has had on as 60.9% of the region’s gas output.
Argentina’s oil and gas industry. Companies that had shut in production
and evacuated platforms included BP, Chev-
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping ron, Royal Dutch Shell and Norway’s Equinor.
the Latin American oil and gas sector then please click Onshore, meanwhile, Motiva Enterprises and
here for NewsBase’s LatAmOil Monitor. Valero Energy were among those to shut some
of their refining operations. Reuters estimated
Middle East: Deals, discoveries, budget cuts on August 25 that nine refining facilities, with
Deals were signed last week between the Iraqi a combined capacity of 2.9mn barrels per day
government and five US energy companies (bpd), were in the process of being shut in.
that focus on oil production, gas capture and The disruption comes just as US producers
electricity generation. The news comes as Iraq’s were getting back on their feet after the severe
power sector continues to struggle particularly industry downturn earlier this year. Data from
amid record high temperatures, while Bagh- oilfield services provider Baker Hughes showed
dad remains reliant on neighbouring Iran for that the total active oil and gas rig count in the US
gas and electricity. Iraq has said it will reduce rose in the week up to August 21 for the first time
imports from Iran, but this will depend greatly since early March. The oil rig count increased by
on the progress made in capturing gas and grid 11 on the previous week, while the gas rig count
connectivity. fell by one. The Permian Basin accounted for the
Meanwhile, Turkey this week announced its majority of the increase.
largest ever find at the Tuna-1 well. The discov-
ery has been estimated at 320bn cubic metres If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping the
and renamed Sakarya. While there are the usual North American oil and gas sector then please click here
concerns about announcements made by the for NewsBase’s NorthAmOil Monitor. ™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 34 28•August•2020