Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
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At 0330GMT today, Brent crude oil one month futures contract is trading 1.16% or $0.54 lower at $46.08 per barrel. Yesterday, the contract declined 1.15% or $0.54, to settle at $46.62 per barrel, amid concerns that crude oil inventories would continue to rise in the future.
Divisions emerge within Opec as members frustrated by the oil price rout call on Saudi Arabia to scale back production in a bid to restore prices Pressure is building on Saudi Arabia from members within the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) to agree to an emergency meeting to arrest plummeting oil prices. The Telegraph understands that Opec’s secretary general, Abdulla Salem el-Badri, has spoken to Saudi officials on behalf of members within the group who are coming under extreme economic pressure from oil prices dropping towards levels of $40 per barrel. It is also understood that Algeria has circulated a letter within Opec, lobbying for oil ministers to discuss measures to restore prices. These could include introducing individual production quotas within the group which would prevent certain countries from over-producing.
EnQuest latest North Sea casualty of oil price fall: Energy explorer EnQuest, one of the biggest independent operators in the North Sea, has become the latest victim of the slump in the oil price after revealing its underlying profits had slid by a third during the first half of the year.
U.S. government lowers oil price forecast on Iran nuclear deal: American oil prices are expected to average less than $50 per barrel throughout 2015 after the U.S. government’s official watchdog lowered its forecast for the next two years
At 0330GMT today, Brent crude oil one month futures contract is trading 0.59% or $0.28 lower at $46.88 per barrel. Yesterday, the contract declined 3.38% or $1.65, to settle at $47.16 per barrel, after the EIA reported that the US crude oil stockpiles advanced by 2.6 million barrels in the week ended 14 August
Cairn Energy gets go ahead for African prospect: Cairn Energy, the Edinburgh oil and gas explorer, expects to start drilling its major prospect off Senegal later this year after getting the green light from government officials to start evaluation work.
1,000 sq miles of England to be opened up for fracking: Large areas of Yorkshire, the north-west and the east Midlands are to be opened up to fracking after the government announced it will offer a fresh round of licences for oil and gas exploration.
Laconic tonic: Wood Group Chief Executive Bob Keiller compares the fighting spirit of staff to that of the 300 Spartans who held back Persian hordes at Thermopylae in 480BC. This was not a great motivational analogy — the Spartans all died. But it aptly dramatises the challenges facing the oilfield services group. First-half pretax profits from continuing operations plunged 31% to £160.6 million in response to an oil price slump. Mr Keiller has done better, cutting Wood’s headcount by 13% and reducing wage rates for remaining hard-hatted hoplites. It is a reminder, as a mini-reporting season for oil services groups commences, that, seen reductively, these are just contract labour suppliers. They are exposed to big cuts in revenues — Wood’s fell 19.3% — when low prices force oil majors to scale back projects. But they can soften the impact by flexing costs. Underlying earnings were only 7.4% lighter. Mr Keiller, who it is hard to imagine in leather shorts, is sticking to a pledge for double digit dividend increases, even though explorer Cairn is warning of a new oil environment where prices stay “lower for longer”. Cash generation is healthy, so Wood’s promise-keeping is hardly on a par with that of the Spartans. When told Persian arrows would blot out the sun, they replied laconically: “Then we will fight in the shade.”
Green fury after Shell is given go-ahead for Arctic drilling: Shell has been granted final permission by the U.S. regulatory authorities to begin exploratory drilling for oil and gas beneath the Arctic seabed. The decision by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) to allow the multinational to drill off the Alaskan coast prompted environmentalists to accuse President Barack Obama of “double-speak” over his calls to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy sources.
Wood cuts 5,000 jobs as oil prices bite: Wood Group has announced plans to cut 5,000 jobs in the latest sign of the damage that lower oil prices are inflicting on the industry
At 0330GMT today, Brent crude oil one month futures contract is trading 0.41% or $0.20 lower at $48.61 per barrel, ahead of the Energy Information Administration’s weekly oil inventory data, scheduled to be released later today. Yesterday, the contract climbed 0.14% or $0.07, to settle at $48.81 per barrel, amid bargain buying. Meanwhile, the API report stated that the US crude oil supply dropped by 2.3 million barrels for the week ended 14 August
Nigeria state oil group NNPC taps private sector for top ranks: The new head of Nigeria’s state oil company has tapped the private sector as part of an overhaul of senior ranks intended to clean up the entity at the heart of the country’s economy
Countryside opened up to oilmen in fracking drive: At least 2,400 square kilometres of the English countryside will be thrown open to oil explorers as the government announces a new drive to encourage fracking in Britain.
North Sea workers threaten first mass strikes since 1980s: Britain’s North Sea oil industry is set for an autu million of discontent, as workers threaten to take strike action for the first time in a generation after thousands of job cuts triggered by plunging prices
U.S. fracking downturn hits Indian guar farmers: Indian farmers are feeling the pinch after a collapse in the price of guar gum, a key raw material used by frackers in the U.S. shale gas industry.
Crude Oil At 0330GMT today, Brent crude oil one month futures contract is trading 0.25% or $0.12 lower at $48.62 per barrel, ahead of the American Petroleum Institute weekly oil inventory data, scheduled to be released later today. Yesterday, the contract declined 0.59% or $0.29, to settle at $48.74 per barrel, amid concerns from glut in global supplies and after forecasters stated that demand for oil would drop in the forthcoming period.
LONDON (Alliance News) - Royal Dutch Shell PLC has entered into a framework agreement with China's Guanghui Energy Co Ltd to jointly buy and distributed liquefied natural gas, a rare cooperation deal between the FTSE 100-listed major and a local private company in China, Reuters reports. Shell has signed a non-binding framework deal with Guanghui, which is building a gas-receiving terminal in the Qidong of Jiangsu province. The terminal is designed to handle an annual capacity of around 600,000 tonnes in its first phase.
Shell wins go-ahead for Arctic drilling Oil group hopes for big discovery but environmentalists angry
Oil price crash claims 1,000 jobs in North Sea: The devastation wrought by the oil price crash on Britain’s North Sea industry is set to be laid bare when one of the region’s biggest contractors reveals that it has cut 4,000 jobs since the start of the year.
Phone call at heart of U.S. case against BP: At the heart of the U.S. government’s case against BP is a recording of a telephone conversation between Gradyn Comfort, one of its senior natural gas traders, and Clayton Luskie, a graduate trainee who was in a panic about his future at the company.
At 0330GMT today, Brent crude oil one month futures contract is trading 1.02% or $0.50 lower at $48.53 per barrel. On Friday, the contract declined 0.39% or $0.19, to settle at $49.03 per barrel, amid persistent supply glut fears after Baker Hughes reported an increase in active oil rigs in the US last week
Oil price slide expected to impact Wood Group's results: The weakness of oil and gas activity globally is expected to hit the half-yearly financial results of Wood Group, the Aberdeen-based multinational energy services company, to be published on Tuesday
Dana Petroleum slashes valuation of its North Sea business: Dana Petroleum has plunged deep into the red as it slashed the value of its North Sea business to reflect the sharp fall in the oil price.
Fracking: 6,000 square miles of England earmarked for shale exploration: Households across an estimated 6,000 square miles of England – an area the size of Yorkshire – are expected to learn within days that their areas have been earmarked for possible fracking.
Investors aren’t buying BP takeover talk: Shares in BP slipped to a seven-month low on Friday, having dropped 22% since mid-April. The stock is nearly 10% cheaper than it was at the start of July, before BP signed a landmark deal to settle all U.S. state and federal claims from the Deepwater Horizon disaster