Saudi Arabia - joining the dots

A series of blog entries exploring Saudi Arabia's role in the oil markets with a brief look at the history of the royal family and politics that dictate and influence the Kingdom's oil policy

Monday, 23 March 2020

Shell acts to reinforce business resilience and financial strength

Shell acts to reinforce business resilience and financial strength 23 March 2020 Press release as follows: As the COVID-19 virus spreads across the world - seriously impacting people’s health, our way of life and global markets - Shell is putting the safety and health of our people and customers first, along with the safe operations of all our businesses. At the same time, we are taking decisive action to reinforce the financial strength and...

Sunday, 22 March 2020

COVID-19 North Sea Recovery by end 2020

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Saturday, 21 March 2020

Which hydrocarbon sources are the highest Greenhouse Gas emitters?

The main culprit we are familiar with as a Greenhouse Gas ("GHG") is Carbon Dioxide CO2. However Methane CH4 is a worse polluter with 25 times the potency as a GHG than CO2. Below is a comparison of GHG emissions intensity by hydrocarbon source. This includes CO2 and CH4 emissions. Unsurprisingly, energy intensity processes needed to extract hydrocarbons are high on the emissions list. ...

Tuesday, 17 March 2020

Total Makes a New Gas and Condensates Discovery in the North Sea

Total, Operator, and its partners have made an encouraging discovery with the Isabella 30/12d-11 well on the license P1820, located in the Central North Sea offshore UK, about 40 kms south of the Elgin-Franklin field and 170 kms east of Aberdeen. The well was drilled in a water depth of about 80 meters and encountered 64 meters net pay of lean gas and condensate and high-quality light oil, in Upper Jurassic and Triassic sandstone reservoirs....

Wednesday, 4 March 2020

Forcing regime change in Venezuela

US attempts to force regime change in Venezuela continues despite the huge humanitarian crisis it is causing. The sanctions on the Maduro government have been absolutely crippling with oil output down from 2.5mmbbl/d down to sub-1mmbbl/d and falling - due to inability to invest to maintain production, striking PDVSA staff with pay uncertainty, inexperienced generals taking over and running over PDVSA as well and shrinking importer base for its crude. On this note, the situation is worsened with the US' latest sanctions of Russian Rosneft which...

Tuesday, 3 March 2020

Lest we forget

With coverage of Iranian tensions diminishing and more recently overshadowed by COVID-19, we review the likely direction of travel in light of recent events. On 23rd February 2020, the country held its 11th parliamentary elections with Conservatives securing all 30 parliamentary seats in Tehran and winning control overt most branches of the State. This will continue the Conservatives run in parliament but does set the stage for a more extreme Presedential candidate from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to win in 2021. The country has been drastically...

Tuesday, 7 January 2020

Premier announces landmark acquisitions with BP and Dana for USD816 million

Premier announced the below this morning. Premier is pleased to announce the proposed acquisitions of the Andrew Area and Shearwater assets from BP for US$625 million, and an additional 25 per cent. interest in the Premier operated Tolmount Area from Dana for US$191 million plus contingent payments of up to US$55 million (together the “Acquisitions”). Premier is also pleased to announce the proposed extension of its existing credit facilities...