ExxonMobil’s oil finding streaking offshore Guyana is continuing, with the company reporting yesterday that it has struck oil again. It is Exxon’s third such find in the Stabroek Block and the second this year, coming on the heels of oil discoveries in Liza in 2015 and Payara in January.
Venezuelan Supreme Court reversal decision to take over the opposition-led congress seems to have yielded to domestic and international pressure, but it still gives embattled populist President Nicolas Maduro broad new powers over the country´s vast oil wealth, which now appears to have been his true target.
Brazil is poised to sharply increase oil exports this year as heavy investments spur new output and demand for its lighter crudes win more buyers, especially in China and India. Production is projected to rise 210,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2017, second only in the size of additional supply to the United States among non-OPEC producers.
Brazil's state-run oil company says it posted a US$4.8 billion loss in 2016 mainly because of a reduction in the value of assets it needs to sell to lower a debt estimated at more than US$100 billion.
Argentina's Tecpetrol, part of the Techint Group, said on Thursday it would invest US$2.3 billion in the Vaca Muerta shale fields through 2019, the largest announcement in the formation in years. Tecpetrol said in a statement the investment was made possibly due to measures from President Mauricio Macri's government, including a deal with labor unions earlier this year and a definition of price supports this month.
In an effort to handle its overdue debts, Venezuela is all but giving away oil assets. President Nicolás Maduro is reportedly so desperate to pay the US$ 3.7 billion in debts that he is selling off the assets to Russia.
Although Venezuela has 18 refineries throughout the world and six on its own soil, on Thursday most states face a shortage of gasoline that has led to long lines at gas stations around the country. Venezuelans have spent hours in such lines, as they await a product that has been in short supply for several days in different cities across the country.
United States oil giant Exxon Mobil Corporation is moving full steam ahead with plans to transform Guyana, in the north of South America, into a major oil producer. In what industry experts call a rare occurrence in the industry, Exxon Mobil has asked the David Granger administration for a production license to start pumping oil from the country’s seabed, less than five years after it discovered major oil finds.
Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego was forced on Monday to close down government offices, suspend classes and impose a blackout rotation program following a serious leak from the natural gas pipeline which is the main source of power for the Argentine extreme south province capital.
OPEC's coordinated effort to curtail global supply has so far managed to put a floor under oil prices, which have been sitting modestly above US$50 since the deal was announced at the end of November last year. But resurging U.S. shale has been capping the upside, and Brent has not breached US$58 per barrel. Analysts and experts are now mostly predicting that oil prices will remain below US$60 this year.