Reuters reported that Since July, China has increased imports of crude oil, propane and LNG from the United States, but overall purchases of energy products through October remain well short of the 2020 goals laid down in the Washington Phase 1 trade agreement.
China's purchases of U.S. crude oil, LNG, propane, butane and other energy products totalled $6.61 billion over the first 10 months of 2020, about 26 per cent of the planned $25.3 billion.
Imports of propane, a key component of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) used as fuel for vehicles, heating and petrochemical processing, have risen at the fastest rate of all major energy products.
On Wednesday, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) said deliberate efforts are being made to ensure that the oil and gas industry in the nation provides investors with maximum opportunities.
DPR will continue to build investor opportunities and foster a healthy business climate. The director also promised that all stakeholders for value development and business sustainability will continue to be engaged by the organization.
Finance Minister Mohamed Maait, opined that as some importers look to take advantage of this year's market rout, Egypt has bought more derivative contracts to defend itself against a spike in oil costs. The most populous Arab nation almost doubled its oil hedges in the 2020-21 fiscal year ending in June.
As the coronavirus spread across the world, oil prices fell in March and April and lockdowns caused energy demand to crash. Benchmark Brent oil has since risen to nearly $50 a barrel, but this year it is still down 25%.
Reuters reported that since early November, U.S. natural gas prices have been dropping as persistence of warm weather has led to high inventories rather than seasonal patterns.
Future gas prices delivered to Henry Hub in January 2021, down from almost $3.50 at the end of October, fell to just over $2.40 per million British thermal units.
Lower future prices will allow the highest burning of gas by U.S. energy companies, largely at the expense of coal, while contango will pay for higher stocks until next summer.
A new remote operations centre (ROC) has been opened in Abu Dhabi by Fugro. The organization now has eight ROCs working in all four continents. Fugro's teams will conduct offshore work from onshore by integrating the capabilities of the ROC with its current uncrewed surface vessel operations, enabling projects to be delivered quicker, safer, and with lower carbon footprints.
In order to bypass social distancing measures and enable marine site characterization and asset integrity projects such as rig positioning to remain on schedule, the company said it is deploying remote solutions in the Middle East.
Reuters reported that after a one-year hiatus caused by U.S. sanctions, Russia resumed construction of the politically charged Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany, laying pipes, the pipeline operator said on Friday.
In relations between Russia and the western region, which have fallen into postwar lows, the pipeline, which Washington says compromise Europe's energy security, has become a flashpoint.
Bypassing Ukraine, the two pipelines would have the capacity to pump more than half of Russia's total gas exports to Europe. The flow from Moscow to Kyiv over gas supplies in the previous decades culminated in the disruption of Russian flows into Europe.
The Meleiha concession in the Western Desert will be explored and built by IEOC, Eni's joint venture with EGPC, and the Russian firm Lukoil, while the second deal between EGPC and BP will be for the South Ghareb Offshore concession in the Gulf of Suez.
TAP is the final stage of a $40 trillion Southern Gas Corridor project that is going to transport 10 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe per year from the giant Shah Deniz Field.
At the end of this year the pipeline, which is already commercially operational, will begin to pump the first gas into Italy.
Operators in the downstream petroleum industry in Nigeria will wait an additional 24 months before the complete deregulation of the sector takes full effect. Moreover, the long-awaited Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), which offers fillip to the values of the free market, remains in balance.
This comes as a tender to select companies to participate in the 2021-2022 Direct Selling of Crude Oil and Direct Purchase of Petroleum Product (DSDP), also known as the crude-for-products swap scheme, was issued by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Monday.
It was hoped that marketers would be able to restart imports of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, after a six-month extension of the previous deal, which expired at the end of September 2020.