Page 4 - AsianOil Week 48 2020

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OPEC rift delays talks with partners

POLICY DISAGREEMENT between members of the
OPEC cartel has led to the delay of the planned
meeting with the wider OPEC+ group. The
Monday meeting in Vienna is understood
to have lasted long into the evening, with
tensions flaring about the future of cuts that
sought to prop up oil prices which dropped on
news of the delay.
The OPEC+ meeting will now take place on
December 3, with informal discussions between
OPEC members expected to continue in the
background until then. With concerns growing
among members about the peak of oil demand,
OPEC producers possessing some of the world’s
largest reserves have grown anxious about ramp-
ing up the speed of extraction. Nigeria, commit to full compliance before
Bloomberg quoted ministerial sources as say- proceeding with a deal.
ing that consensus was at one point close, only Given that Iraqi output has been growing
for Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Prince Abdu- rather than dropping in accordance with prom-
laziz bin Salman Al-Saud to threaten to resign as ised compensatory cuts, this is highly unlikely to
co-chair of an OPEC+ panel in frustration. be achieved. In a move to appease Abu Dhabi,
While the UAE has historically been one the UAE was apparently offered the opportunity
of OPEC’s most loyal members, it has recently to co-chair the OPEC+ monitoring committee,
shown its determination to ramp up oil output but this was rejected.
and is thought to have been mulling its depar- The OPEC+ meeting had been antici-
ture from the cartel in order to hold greater pated to see agreement reached on whether
sway over production levels. Delegates told to extend the current 7.7mn barrel per day
Bloomberg that the OPEC is insisting that production cuts which are due to be eased by
those with historic non-compliance, includ- 2mn bpd in January, with Saudi Arabia a key
ing the UAE and to a greater extent Iraq and proponent of the extension.™

SOUTH ASIA

ExxonMobil mulls Indian

upstream farm-ins

FINANCE & US super-major ExxonMobil is in talks to understanding (MoU) with ExxonMobil in
INVESTMENT farm in to producing oil and gas fields in India, October 2019 on jointly conducting technical
according to Indian Minister of Petroleum and studies and co-operating in upstream projects.
Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan. ONGC said at the time that the MoU would
The government wants to replicate the US be carried out in three phases. This will lead to a
model of involving small and mid-sized devel- joint technical study for potential collaboration
opers to help boost exploration and production, areas, leading to a joint technical study for poten-
local news wire PTI quoted Pradhan as saying tial collaboration.
during a December 2 webinar. Pradhan said: “Until 2014, the total acreage
“ExxonMobil is in active discussion with given for exploration and production was about
some of our companies to participate in some of 90,000 square km. In two rounds of auction of
our producing fields,” the minister said, without discovered small fields (DSF) and five rounds
elaborating. “Small companies have developed of Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP), an
the Texas shale oil and gas sector. We are envis- additional 165,000 square km of area has been
aging a similar scenario in India through pro- offered.”
gressive policy and involving a lot of small and While the Indian government is looking to
mid-sized companies.” encourage smaller companies to enter the coun-
State-owned Oil and Natural Gas try’s upstream, Pradhan hastened to add that
Corp, (ONGC) signed a memorandum of larger companies were obviously welcome.

P4 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 48 03•December•2020