
Mexico’s president vowed on Saturday to redouble his fight against an epidemic of fuel theft after thieves punctured a pipeline north of Mexico City, causing an explosion that killed at least 73 people and injured 75 others. The blast underscored the deadly perils of the fuel-theft racket, which has cost the government billions of dollars a year and has been the target of a weeks' long crackdown by the administration of Mexico’s new president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Brazil’s solicitor general has overturned one injunction that prevented state-controlled oil company Petrobras from proceeding with one of its largest divestitures, the government said in a statement.

Petrobras reports that in 2018, its total production of oil and gas, including natural gas liquids (NGL), was 2.63 MMboed, of which 2.53 MMboed produced in Brazil and 101,000 boed abroad. Petrobras’ own production of oil in Brazil was 2.03 MMbpd.

Argentina's president Mauricio Macri on Monday said the joint Argentina-China hydropower megaproject is highly important and emblematic in terms of renewable energy and economic development. Macri made the remarks during his first official visit to the construction site of the project, where two hydroelectric dams, Condor Cliff and La Barrancosa, are being erected along the Santa Cruz River in Patagonia to boost national energy output.

The UK government's nuclear policy is under renewed scrutiny as the firm behind a £20bn reactor in Wales looks set to halt construction. Japanese media reports say Hitachi will suspend on its Horizon division's Wylfa Newydd plant this week. The company says no formal decision has yet been made.

Premier Oil has taken advantage of its second consecutive year of record oil production to make larger than expected cuts into its still-significant debts. The London-listed oil and gas developer, with interests in the Falkland Islands, expects its financial results to reveal end-of-year debts of US$2.3 billion, after removing US$390 million from the total following a sharp rise in oil output.

Commodities trader Trafigura has refused a judge's order to hand over the email archives of two former executives in Brazil who are facing corruption charges over accusations they bribed officials at state-run oil firm Petrobras.

Gasoline shortages in Mexico sparked by a crackdown on fuel theft prompted warnings from business leaders that industries like car making will suffer if the shortfalls persist as lines at gas stations in the capital grew during the week.

US energy company ExxonMobil has started drilling one of two new exploration wells offshore Guyana. It’s the first of two wells to be drilled this month. The world’s largest publicly traded international oil and gas company said in a statement that the Stena Carron drillship is drilling the Haimara-1 well, located 19 miles east of the Pluma-1 discovery in the southeast Stabroek Block.

Brazil’s Economy Ministry denied that the government would pay US$ 14 billion to state-controlled oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA to settle a dispute over an oil-producing zone off the Brazilian coast known as the transfer-of-rights area.