Energy & Oil

• Saturday, December 8th 2018 - 09:30 UTC

  Brazil environment regulator denies license to drill near mouth of the Amazon

  

  Brazil's environmental regulator on Friday denied French oil giant Total a license to drill for crude in five blocks near the mouth of the Amazon river. Regulatory agency Ibama said the license was denied “due to a set of technical problems” identified during the application process.

• Friday, December 7th 2018 - 06:41 UTC

  Mexican president wants more investment from oil companies before awarding new contracts

  

  Mexico’s new president says he will take a three-year break from awarding new oil exploration contracts in order to judge the results of contracts already awarded.

• Thursday, December 6th 2018 - 09:47 UTC

  Venezuela importing 300.000 bpd of refined products to ease fuel shortage

  

  Venezuela this month plans to import over 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) of refined products to ease domestic fuel shortages caused by hobbled refineries and need to prioritize exports, according to internal documents, reports Reuters.

• Thursday, December 6th 2018 - 09:32 UTC

  YPF and Malaysia's Petrona committed to invest US$ 2.3bn in Vaca Muerta

  

  Argentina's state-run energy company YPF and Malaysia's Petronas agreed this week to invest US$ 2.3 billion in a shale oil project in Vaca Muerta, with a target of reaching 60,000 b/d of oil equivalent by 2022. The investment will be in La Amarga Chica, where the companies have been testing the shale oil potential since 2015 and have spent US$ 550 million to date in the process, YPF said in a statement.

• Thursday, December 6th 2018 - 08:34 UTC

  French government suspends fuel tax, but protests continued across the country

  

  The French government's decision to suspend fuel tax and utility hikes on Tuesday did little to appease protesters, who called the move a “first step” and vowed to fight on after large-scale rioting in Paris last weekend.

• Thursday, December 6th 2018 - 08:28 UTC

  Mexican president pressing foreign oil companies to show results

  

  Mexico’s newly inaugurated president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, AMLO, is turning up the heat on foreign oil companies to show results before he holds new auctions.

• Thursday, December 6th 2018 - 08:24 UTC

  Guyana's tenth oil discovery makes her a future Latin American powerhouse

  

  Thanks to ExxonMobil’s run of success in oil exploration offshore Guyana, the country is on a path to becoming a Latin American powerhouse, Wood Mackenzie said. The super-major announced its tenth Guyana discovery this week, increasing the discovered recoverable resource in its Stabroek Block to more than five billion barrels.

• Wednesday, December 5th 2018 - 08:39 UTC

  Brazil's oil and gas output rose strongly in October after five flat months

  

  Brazil's domestic crude oil output rose for the first time in five months in October as production from the subsalt region continued to grow and fewer floating production units were idled by maintenance shutdowns during the month.

• Tuesday, December 4th 2018 - 09:04 UTC

  Brazil increasing ethanol capacity because of depressed global sugar prices

  

  Brazilian sugar companies are increasing their capacity to produce ethanol in the face of depressed global sugar prices and government policies expected to boost demand for the biofuel. A shift to ethanol in the 2018-19 season slashed Brazil’s sugar output by 9 million tons to a 12-year low and more switching to the biofuel next season could help to wipe out a global surplus weighing on sugar prices.

• Tuesday, December 4th 2018 - 08:41 UTC

  Qatar exits OPEC on January to concentrate as world's largest LNG exporter

  

  Qatar said it will quit OPEC to focus on gas in a swipe at Saudi Arabia, the de facto leader of the oil exporting group which is trying to show unity in tackling an oil price slide. Doha, one of OPEC’s smallest oil producers but the world’s biggest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter, is embroiled in a row with OPEC members Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.