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has been provided with details about Baghdad’s Equinor will also not drill any new
plans for the Thi Qar project under discussion unconventional wells in the US this year,
with Chevron. according to the spokesman. The company
has acreage in the Marcellus and Bakken
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping formations. It is one of numerous producers
the Middle East’s oil and gas sector then please click scaling back its shale operations in response
here for NewsBase’s MEOG Monitor. to the downturn.
Separately, leading independent US shale
Job cuts hit North America’s oil industry players Pioneer Natural Resources and Parsley
Further job cuts have been reported in recent Energy were reported to be planning to cut staff
days to be looming for oil and gas producers with numbers in the coming days.
operations in North America. On top of the ongoing challenges related to the
This comes as producers on the continent con- industry downturn, energy sector players in the US
tinue to struggle to bounce back from the severe Gulf of Mexico and on the Gulf Coast have had to
industry downturn that began in March and contend with disruption – and in some cases dam-
was compounded by the spread of coronavirus age – caused by Hurricane Laura last week.
(COVID-19). Demand is picking up and crude Over the last few days, operations were being
prices have stabilised recently, but they remain restored across oil platforms in the Gulf, refin-
unfavourably low, and market conditions are still eries and LNG export terminals, among other
relatively challenging for producers. facilities. On August 31, it was reported that a US
Over the past week, it emerged that Norway’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) site in Louisi-
Equinor is set to cut jobs “significantly” in the US ana, West Hackberry, had sustained “considera-
and Canada – as well as in the UK. An Equinor ble damage” as a result of the storm.
spokesman told Reuters that employee numbers
in these countries would be cut by around 20%, If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
while contractor numbers would be reduced by the North American oil and gas sector then please click
around 50%. here for NewsBase’s NorthAmOil Monitor.™

Platform at Iran’s South Pars gas field.

Week 35 03•September•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P17