Credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s on Friday raised its corporate credit rating on Petrobras, one notch, from B+ to BB-. The rating change does not lift Petrobras out of the non-investment grade category, but it lowers the risk from “highly speculative” to “speculative.”
Rockhopper Exploration plc has provided its latest operational and corporate update which includes the North Falkland Basin Sea Lion project and has announced that the technical engineering is approaching conclusion and a settlement on the Eirik Raude rig dispute has been reached.
Argentina has declared 2017 as the ‘Renewable Energy Year’ as the country looks to increase awareness about the advantages of renewable energy and the important of sustainability. A decree issued by the government calls for energy diversification through the use of renewable energy sources in the electricity generation as well as thermal energy sector.
The Falkland Islands government is attending the Annual Trinidad and Tobago Energy Conference from January 23rd – 25th, 2017 at the Hyatt Regency, Port-of-Spain. The Trinidad and Tobago Energy Conference is the premier Energy Conference in the Caribbean and promotes vigorous debate and discussion among leaders of industry, Government and academia.
Petrobras’ average oil production in Brazil in 2016 went up 0.75% in comparison to the previous year and reached 2,144,256 barrels per day. According to the company, the result was in line with the established target of 2.145 million and represents an annual all-time high.
Argentina's government has agreed to extend a natural gas wellhead price subsidy until 2020 and reduce labor costs in a bid to jumpstart investment in the Vaca Muerta shale formation. The agreement, reached between the national government, the provincial government of Neuquen, industry and labor unions, comes at a time of lackluster upstream activity, reflecting an uncertain price environment and cost concerns.
Last December, the CPI actually contracted 0.55%, something similar to what happened twelve months before helped by a significant decrease in the power rate, estimated at 19.65% and which benefitted over a million clients. The logo of the end of the year bonus campaign is “Ute Prize” (UTE is the Uruguayan power company which works under a government monopoly regime).
Brazil's oil and gas corporation Petrobras announced this week the sale of ethanol and petrochemicals assets for US$587 million, but said it would still fall US$1.5 billion short of its divestment target for the 2015-2016 period.
All issues linked to fisheries and hydrocarbons in the Falklands/Malvinas must be discussed and approved by Congress, warned Argentina's chair of the foreign affairs committee adding that if necessary the officials involved, who ignore the legislative will be summoned and sacked with a no confidence vote and political trial.
Uruguayan oil company ANCAP announced Wednesday through a press release that one of its companies, Carboclor S.A., based in Argentina, had turned to the courts to start the reorganization proceedings, known in Argentinian law as Concurso Preventivo, which is very similar to the United States' Chapter Eleven bankruptcy mechanism.