
United States turned into a net natural gas exporter for a week after the first liquefied natural gas export from Cheniere Energy Inc's Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana left for Brazil. The United States however is not expected to become a net exporter of gas on an annual basis until 2017 after more pipelines to Mexico and LNG export terminals enter service, according to federal energy estimates.

Oil exploration efforts have intensified following the discovery of commercial quantities of oil in Guyana’s Maritime Zone. Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Ltd. (EEPGL) has commenced a meteorological and oceanographic survey in the Stabroek Block, scheduled to be completed during May 2018.

French oil company Total has started up production at the offshore Vega Pleyade gas and condensate field in the Tierra del Fuego region of Argentina. Operated by Total, the project will have a production capacity of 10 million cubic meters of gas per day (70,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d)).

Argentina's oil and gas company YPF submitted a copy of the contract signed with Chevron back in 2013 for joint works at the Loma Campana field in the province of Neuquén. Still, Argentina’s state-run energy giant demanded “confidential information” not to be revealed.

Brazil’s government-owned oil giant Petrobras should cede some of its drilling rights to foreign firms, Royal Dutch Shell Oil CEO Ben van Beurden was quoted saying in Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper.

The Brazilian government expects to reach an agreement by Friday with Samarco Mineração to settle a 20 billion-real (US$4.9 billion) lawsuit for damages in the deadly dam disaster which burst in inland Minas Gerais creating a tsunami of mud and waste that killed 17 people and reached the Atlantic ocean.

Despite current low oil prices, the oil and gas industry in the Falkland Islands is continuing to go from strength to strength as its first project, Premier Oil’s Sea Lion, moves closer to commercialization, according to an analyst with research and consulting firm GlobalData.

Norway’s Statoil said that it has signed an agreement with Tullow Oil to secure a 35% working interest in a Uruguay’s Pelotas basin exploration block 15, about 200 kilometers off the coast of Uruguay.

Four of the world's biggest oil-producing nations moved to freeze their production on Tuesday to try to halt the 70 percent drop in the price of crude because of a glut of oil on world markets. The agreement was reached by the oil ministers of Russia and three members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Qatar, during a closed-door meeting in Doha, the Qatar capital.

Ocean Rig UDW Inc. has officially announced that two of its drilling contracts have been terminated, one of them in the Falkland Islands where its Eirik Raude was working for Premier Oil as the main operator. Ocean Rig is demanding a termination fee of several million dollars and in case Premier Oil contests the payment, we intend to commence arbitration proceedings.