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involved in vote-fixing, bribes and other illegal Turkish President, the find is transformational
acts. Meanwhile, Loyoza himself is also facing for a country which is reliant on imports for
corruption charges. nearly all of its energy needs.
In Brazil, prosecutors have accused two peo- As Saudi Aramco contends with a massively
ple of obtaining confidential market information reduced capital budget, the company is reported
from state-run Petrobras to benefit Denmark’s to have cancelled its tender for maintenance
AP Moller-Maersk, a major player in the global work at the giant offshore Marjan oilfield. Citing
shipping industry. In a statement, judicial offi- sources close to the company’s long-term agree-
cials alleged that Viggo Andersen, a former ment (LTA) programme, Upstream said that the
Maersk executive who was based in Brazil, contract release purchase order 66 (CRPO-66)
had taken part in a scheme to bribe a Petrobras engineering, procurement and construction
executive through an intermediary. The scheme (EPC) project had been called off.
caused Petrobras to incur at least $31.7mn in
losses, the statement said. If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
In Peru, disagreements between the govern- the Middle East’s oil and gas sector then please click
ment and indigenous communities continue to here for NewsBase’s MEOG Monitor.
have an impact on oil-producing areas in Loreto
Province. Lima is moving forward with its inves- North America: Gulf Coast braces for storms
tigation of a deadly clash between policemen and Offshore oil and gas producers in the US Gulf of
indigenous protesters at the Bretana oilfield ear- Mexico – as well as refiners on the coast – were
lier this month. The probe appears to be making suspending operations over the weekend as two
enough progress that the demonstrators are will- storms in the region threatened to cause disrup-
ing to let PeruPetro, the national oil and gas reg- tions. Tropical Storm Marco was downgraded
ulator, resume shipments through the Northern to a tropical depression the day it made landfall,
Oil Pipeline (ONP). For its part, PetroTal (Can- on August 24. However, Tropical Storm Laura
ada), the operator of Bretana, hopes to resume strengthened into Category 3 hurricane this
production before the end of the month. week as it approached the Gulf Coast, posing a
Meanwhile, Argentina’s Energy Secretary serious threat to parts of Louisiana and Texas. It
Sergio Lanziani has stepped down from his was expected to strengthen further to a Category
post at the request of Production Minister Mat- 4 hurricane on August 26.
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
and renamed Sakarya. While there are the usual the North American oil and gas sector then please click
concerns about announcements made by the here for NewsBase’s NorthAmOil Monitor.

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 34 27•August•2020