ConocoPhillips' mix of a North Sea portfolio

ConocoPhillips' is one of the largest operators in the UK North Sea, being the operator of the Britannia area, the J-Area and large swathes of the Southern North Sea. ConocoPhillips is also a non-operated partner in the giant Clair field. Clair is one of the largest oil fields in the UK offshore and located in the West of Shetlands which is making a name for being the last frontier of the UK and is increasingly attracting further exploration...

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Saudi and Russia dominate gossip columns in run up to June OPEC meeting

As we approach the June OPEC meeting, all eyes on Saudi Arabia and Russia for any clues on the direction they will go on 22nd June. With the sanctions on Iran and imminent collapse of Venezuela, Trump has asked the two power weights to step in to avoid oil prices going any higher. This in itself is ironic as the US has been trying to wean itself off imports and attain energy independence from OPEC, yet it is now openly asking Saudi Arabia to...

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Putumayo smart crude marketing

Putumayo producers are blessed with having multiple export routes and the flexibility that affords in maximising sales netbacks. The most direct route is the OTA pipeline to Tumaco. However this route has historically been plagued by attacks leading to downtime and the South Blend crude at Tumaco also fetches one of the biggest discounts to benchmarks vs. other region blends. This has led to producers accessing Ecuadorian export routes...

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Shamaran acquires more of Atrush

Shamaran has acquired an additional 15% interest in the Atrush field for USD60 million. This takes its share from 20.1% to 35.1%. The remaining owners are TAQA 39.9% and KRG 25%). The field began producing in July 2017 and currently has capacity to produce at 30mbopd. There are longer term plans to debottleneck and add future phases, potentially taking production beyond 100mbopd. The field’s potential is underpinned by its 102.7mmbbl...

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Majors pick up acreage in Brazil

Equinor press release: Equinor, ExxonMobil and Petrogal Brasil presented the winning bid (75.49% profit oil) for the Uirapuru production sharing contract in the Santos basin. Petrobras exercised its right to enter the consortium and will be the operator with 30% equity. The final equity distribution is Petrobras (30% operator), Equinor (28%), ExxonMobil (28%) and Petrogal Brasil (14%). The pre-determined signature bonus to be paid by the bidding...

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Oil price brave new world

Oil prices have never been easy to predict and despite the vast amount of data points out there, making sense of it all remains a big challenge. Two themes have emerged in the past decade that has changed the landscape and makes understanding the oil markets difficult: emergence of non-sophisticated traders and US exports. Non-sophisticated traders have replaced traditional traders. These new (and now established) entrants trade off newsflow...

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