Freeport quits oil IPO as industry crisis thwarts sale plan

Freeport-McMoRan Inc.’s failed attempt to offload its energy business has culminated in the copper miner withdrawing its registration to sell shares in the unit. More »

Shale drillers hold off retiring oil rigs as cash flows improve

Oil explorers in the U.S. put a pause on their rig cancellations this week as improving technology and rising prices make some basins more profitable. More »

Cairn India CEO quits after record quarterly loss

Cairn India said its CEO Mayank Ashar resigned citing personal reasons, just a month after the nation’s largest private oil producer posted its biggest quarterly loss. More »

Merged Technip, FMC to become second-largest oilfield service company

Rystad Energy's latest analysis shows that the recently announced combination of Technip and FMC will create the second-largest company in the oilfield service industry, after the merger between Halliburton and Baker Hughes failed. More »

Most DUCs are within the Permian, Eagle Ford, Bakken and Niobrara: Rystad

Operators have accumulated ~3,900 drilled, but uncompleted horizontal oil wells (DUCs) across the U.S. shale, with more than 90% of these located within the major liquids plays, according to the latest analysis by Rystad Energy. More »

Offshore leasing program lacks vision, doesn’t reflect U.S. energy leadership: API

API has called on the federal government to align its offshore leasing program to reflect America’s new role as a global energy superpower and focus on the opportunities this creates for the country. More »

Murkowski warns Obama admin on Arctic lease sales

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, pressed the federal BOEM to maintain all three lease sales proposed for Alaska’s Outer Continental Shelf in its final program for 2017 through 2022. More »

Exxon, Total, Chevron in talks with Pemex on Gulf prospects

Petroleos Mexicanos is in talks with Exxon Mobil Corp., Total and Chevron Corp. as Mexico’s struggling state-run oil producer seeks partners to develop deepwater crude in the Gulf of Mexico. More »

Sheffield set to retire from Pioneer Natural Resources

Scott D. Sheffield is to retire as the CEO of Pioneer Natural Resources as of Dec. 31. The board of directors has approved a transition plan under which Timothy L. Dove—Pioneer’s president and COO—will succeed Sheffield as the company’s president and CEO. More »

Total, Oil Search divvy InterOil assets in $2.2-billion deal

Total and Oil Search will divide the Papua New Guinea assets of InterOil Corp. in a two-step deal as global energy companies seek to expand the Pacific nation’s LNG exports. More »

American Energy to shut down after passing of founder

American Energy Partners (AEP) LP, the firm created by Aubrey McClendon, will shut down following the shale pioneer’s death, the company said in a statement emailed by an outside spokeswoman. More »

Nigeria suffers wave of pipeline attacks, shrinking output

After years of relative peace, militants are again blowing up the pipelines that criss-cross the mangrove swamps of Nigeria’s Niger River delta, reducing oil output to the lowest in almost three decades and fueling a rally in global crude prices. More »

FMC, Technip deal seen dodging scrutiny that stopped Halliburton

FMC Technologies and Technip appear poised to do what larger oil service and equipment providers Halliburton and Baker Hughes couldn’t—close a merger during the market downturn. More »

Katalyst Data Management opens new iGlass geotechnical support center

Katalyst Data Management has opened a new full service iGlass datacenter in Perth, to support oil and gas companies throughout the Asia-Pacific region with their operational and exploration programs. More »

Alberta Plans Reentry to Oil-Sands Town Ravaged by Wildfires

Canadians who fled the wildfire devastation in the oil-sands community of Fort McMurray can tentatively expect to return in a couple of weeks, while the blaze still rages elsewhere in the region and major production sites remain shut. The provincial government is planning a phased reentry over four days starting on June 1 for those who wish to go back. That’s based on expected conditions such as no threat from fires and improved air quality, as well as access to critical infrastructure and essential services like emergency medical care, Premier Rachel Notley said Wednesday. “This is our best guess,” Notley told reporters at a briefing, heeding to demands from evacuees for a timeline for when they can go home. “It’s a balancing act.” More »

Shell said to start talks with buyers for North Sea asset sales

Royal Dutch Shell is in talks with potential buyers for some North Sea assets, mostly fields it got this year as part of the record acquisition of BG Group, according to people familiar with the matter. More »

Hawkwood Energy East Texas acquires assets in East Texas

Hawkwood Energy’s wholly owned subsidiary Hawkwood Energy East Texas, an independent primarily focused in East Texas, has acquired producing and non-producing assets primarily in Leon and Madison counties in Texas. More »

DEA sets up Norwegian group following E.ON EandP Norge acquisition

DEA has set up a new organization—DEA Norge AS—in Norway following a five-month integration process. The move follows the company's acquisition of E.ON EandP Norge in December. More »

Oilennium completes popular e-learning course for IWCF

LODDON, United Kingdom -- Oilennium, a Petrofac company that provides eLearning training services to the oil and gas industry, has completed the Well Control Awareness Course (Level 1), which was developed for the International Well Control Forum (IWCF). More »

Petrofac secures enhanced North Sea contract from Total

Petrofac is set to build on its provision of reimbursable services for Total EandP UK following the award of an enhanced three-year contract extension on the Alwyn and Dunbar platforms in the Northern North Sea. More »

Wood Group develops advanced data analytics capability with CeADAR

Wood Group is collaborating with the Centre for Applied Data Analytics (CeADAR), located at University College Dublin (UCD), to launch a new data analytics capability to deliver significant savings for the energy and industrial sectors. More »

Oil rally seen having more to go as millions of barrels are lost

Oil prices are yet to reflect all of the millions of barrels of crude lost to supply disruptions, according to Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. More »

OPEC strategy working as Kuwait sees oil rising to $50

OPEC’s strategy to defend market share rather than target a price is working as crude gains amid rising demand and declining output from producers including U.S. shale wells, Kuwait’s acting oil minister said. More »

Technip, FMC Technologies will merge to form $13-billion company

PARIS and HOUTSON (Bloomberg) --Technip SA and FMC Technologies Inc. agreed to merge in an all-stock deal, creating a $13 billion oil-services company following the worst crude-market collapse in a generation. More »

Oil extends drop as unexpected stockpile gain expands U.S. glut

Oil extended its decline for a second day as U.S. crude stockpiles unexpectedly increased, keeping supplies at the most in more than eight decades. More »

British Columbia to invest $5 million in funding Geoscience BC

To further support its work in encouraging mineral, coal, and oil and gas exploration investment in British Columbia (B.C.) through the collection and distribution of publicly available geoscience data, Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett announced today that the Province will provide $5 million in funding to Geoscience BC. More »

Alaska’s congressional delegation presses Interior on OCS development

Alaska’s congressional delegation—Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Rep. Don Young—has sent a letter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell urging the Department to keep all three lease sales proposed for Alaska’s OCS in the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) final Five-Year Program for the years 2017 to 2022. More »

France’s proposed shale-gas ban isn’t workable, Total CEO says

Total SA CEO Patrick Pouyanne said plans to ban imports of U.S. shale gas to France may be unworkable. More »

Israel, Egypt said close to accord on natural gas dispute

Israel and Egypt are nearing a compromise that would sweep away a major obstacle to a multi-billion-dollar natural gas deal. More »

Ingevity launches EnvaMul emulsifiers for drilling fluids

Ingevity has announced the introduction of its new EnvaMul emulsifier product line. Based on fatty acid chemistry, EnvaMul emulsifiers are ideal for oil-based muds in drilling applications where cost is the primary driver. More »

McDermott joins 14 offshore companies in signing offshore engineering standardization agreement

McDermott International has joined with 14 other leading offshore companies in signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish engineering industry standards. More »

Oil holds below $50 as supply is comfortable despite disruptions

Oil held below $50/bbl in New York and London as global supplies remained adequate despite production cuts in Canada and Nigeria. More »

Ikon, Fugro combine forces to tackle wellsite related geohazards

During well planning oil companies need advice from specialists for both shallow hazard assessment and deeper pore pressure prediction. Now Fugro and Ikon Science have joined forces to offer an integration of these two services. More »

Norway offers thirteen companies production licenses in Barents Sea

Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has offered new production licenses to thirteen companies in the 23rd licensing round on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. All ten production licenses are located in the Barents Sea. More »

LAGCOE receives presidential award for Export Service

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker has presented LAGCOE (Louisiana Gulf Coast Oil Exposition) with the President’s ‘E’ Award for Export Service at a ceremony in Washington, DC. More »

Australian LNG exports face restrictions in Labor Party plan

New liquefied natural gas projects in Australia, which is forecast to become the world’s largest exporter of the fuel, may need to set aside supplies for domestic use under a policy proposed by the opposition Labor Party. More »

Saudi oil stockpiles hit 18-month low in March as output capped

Saudi Arabia’s crude oil stockpiles fell in March for the fifth month in a row reaching the lowest level in 18 months as the kingdom kept shipping crude to meet customer demand while keeping a lid on production. More »

Continental Resources reports record STACK oil well

Continental Resources has announced the completion of an industry record well in the over-pressured oil window of Oklahoma's STACK play. More »

Shell faces opposition on CEO's pay as bonus seen as excessive

Two shareholder-advisory firms recommended investors vote against the Royal Dutch Shell Plc CEO Ben Van Beurden’s pay, saying his bonus is “excessive.” A third adviser said shareholders should give “qualified support.” More »

Oil rises to seven-month high as supply losses tame surplus

Oil hit a seven-month high on speculation that U.S. crude stockpiles declined last week while supply losses in Canada and Nigeria whittled away the global excess. More »

Packers Plus opens new technology, training center in Colorado

Packers Plus Energy Services has announced the opening of its Global Technology and Training Center in Louisville, Colorado. More »

Nine Energy completes 124-stage well in Utica shale

Nine Energy Service successfully completed 124 perforated stages in an 18,544 ft lateral (27,034 ft TMD) in Guernsey County, Ohio, for Eclipse Resources, a premier independent EandP company in the Appalachian basin. More »

Alberta wildfires spread north, forcing evacuations from camps

Wildfires raging across northern Alberta shifted back toward oil-sands installations north of Fort McMurray, forcing the evacuation of thousands of workers who have been trying to get production restarted after fires curbed output by more than 1 MMbpd. More »

Ray Schlaff joins Wood Group as chief procurement officer

Wood Group has appointed Raymond (Ray) Schlaff to the positions of senior vice president and chief procurement officer, with responsibility for procurement strategies, processes and governance, and to drive efficiencies across the group’s global supply chain. More »

BSEE announces investigation panel for Gulf of Mexico oil release

The U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement is continuing its investigation of the oil release from Shell Offshore Inc.’s Glider field on May 12. More »

CGG registered to estimate reserves in Mexico

PARIS – CGG’s Mexican entity has become one of only a small number of companies to be registered by Mexico’s CNH as an independent third party qualified to audit and certify the nation's reserves. More »

EnerVest acquires $1.3 billion in Eagle Ford assets

EnerVest has announced new acquisitions in the Eagle Ford shale. More »

Iraq oil surge seen losing steam just as markets need more crude

Iraq’s oil industry is on a roll. Production has jumped more than 40% since mid-2014 and exports are at near-record levels. More »

Oil trades near seven-month high as supply losses tame surplus

Oil traded near a seven-month high on speculation that U.S. crude stockpiles declined last week while supply losses in Canada and Nigeria whittled away the global excess. More »

Rockhopper confirms potential of Falklands basin oil discovery

Rockhopper Exploration confirmed potential oil resources in a discovery in the Falklands basin, sending its shares higher. More »

Oil rises to six-month high as Goldman sees demand above output

Oil rose to a six-month high as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said the market moved into a deficit earlier than expected following supply disruptions in Nigeria and an increase in demand. More »

China helping balance oil as thirsty refiners rely on old fields

China’s tumbling crude production amid record-high demand from its oil refineries is helping tighten a global market recovering from a glut. More »

East Libya chief agrees with rival in west to resume exports

Competing administrations of Libya’s state-run National Oil Corp. in the east and west of the divided country agreed to resume exports from Hariga port to help revive the OPEC member’s production, according to the NOC east chairman. More »

Braeden Engineering introduces new digital charting system

Braeden Engineering and Consulting LLC, a leading engineering and construction firm, has announced the introduction of its new Digital Charting System 1200 series (DCS-1200). More »

Murphy Oil Corp. closes Kaybob Duvernay and Placid Montney JV

Murphy Oil Corporation has announced that its Canadian subsidiary, Murphy Oil Company Ltd. (MOCL), closed the joint venture (JV) with affiliates of Athabasca Oil Corporation (Athabasca) that was previously announced on January 27, 2016. More »

Statoil farms into Turkey onshore acreage

Statoil has entered a binding letter agreement into two exploration licenses in the Thrace region in the European north-western part of Turkey. More »

BP doubles its interest in Culzean field in the North Sea

BP announced today it has doubled its interest in the Culzean development in the UK Central North Sea, following its acquisition of an additional 16% interest from JX Nippon. More »

Forum Energy Technologies delivers its largest subsea PLR systems to North Africa

Forum Energy Technologies Inc. has successfully delivered a number of its largest subsea pig launchers and receivers (PLRs) and laydown heads to a project in North Africa. More »

China helping balance oil as thirsty refiners rely on oil fields

China’s tumbling crude production amid record-high demand from its oil refineries is helping tighten a global market recovering from a glut. More »

Range agrees to buy Memorial Resource in $3.3 billion deal

Range Resources Corp. agreed to buy Memorial Resource Development Corp. in a $3.3 billion all-stock deal to take advantage of growing demand from natural gas exports and chemical manufacturers. It’s Range’s single largest deal on record. More »

Algeria signs oil, gas deal as OPEC member boosts sales

Algeria will supply oil and other energy products to Jordan for the first time under a memorandum of understanding signed on Monday, as the OPEC member seeks to diversify sales after years of stagnating crude production. More »