Energy & Oil

• Tuesday, April 23rd 2019 - 09:00 UTC

  US threatens sanctions on countries that continue to purchase Iranian oil: crude hits six month highs

  

  The United States on Monday demanded that buyers of Iranian oil stop purchases by May 1 or face sanctions, a move to choke off Tehran's oil revenues which sent crude prices to six-month highs on fears of a potential supply crunch.

• Saturday, April 20th 2019 - 09:26 UTC

  Venezuelan opposition prepared to pay US$ 71 million bond interests to save Citgo from seizure by creditors

  

  Venezuela's opposition-controlled National Assembly expects to vote on making a US$71 million bond interest payment when it meets next week, a lawmaker and a member of state-run oil company PDVSA's ad-hoc board of directors said.

• Friday, April 19th 2019 - 09:29 UTC

  Brazil to put up new pre-salt oil blocks for auction in October

  

  Brazil will hold an offshore oil deposit auction in October featuring blocks that were the object of a long-running dispute with state energy giant Petrobras. Reuters reports, citing Economy Minister Paulo Guedes, that participants in the auction will need to cough up a signing bonus of a total US$26.9 billion for the four blocks.

• Friday, April 19th 2019 - 09:27 UTC

  ConocoPhillips pulling out of the North Sea oil exploration and production

  

  ConocoPhillips is pulling out of UK exploration and production after selling its North Sea oil and gas assets to Chrysaor for US$ 2.68bn (£2bn). The sale will boost Chrysaor's production by about 72,000 barrels a day to 177,000 - making it one of the UK's biggest operators.

• Thursday, April 18th 2019 - 09:41 UTC

  Petrobras insists it is completely free of political interference and increases diesel price 10 cents

  

  Brazilian state-run oil firm Petrobras hiked diesel prices on Wednesday, and executives said the firm could expand its already aggressive divestment plan while arguing the company was completely free of political interference.

• Thursday, April 18th 2019 - 08:33 UTC

  Spain's Repsol suspends swaps of refined products for crude from Venezuela

  

  Spain’s Repsol has suspended its swaps of refined products for crude with Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA, as U.S. officials weigh penalties for foreign firms doing business with Venezuela.

• Wednesday, April 17th 2019 - 09:56 UTC

  Qatar Petroleum wins five offshore blocks in Argentina's South Atlantic basins

  

  Qatar Petroleum (QP) has won exploration rights in five offshore blocks in the North Argentina, and Malvinas West basins in Argentina. The winning bids were announced on Tuesday by Argentina’s Secretariat of Government of Energy (“SGE”) at the end of a public tender process that started in November 2018.

• Tuesday, April 16th 2019 - 08:31 UTC

  Brazil's Real and Petrobras shares recover on Monday trading

  

  Brazil's Real and shares rose on Monday, recovering after declines last week, while the currencies of oil exporters such as the Mexican and Colombian pesos weakened as crude prices dipped.

• Monday, April 15th 2019 - 09:34 UTC

  Brazil fuel-price controversy: Minister Guedes confident he can convince Bolsonaro and overcome the situation

  

  Brazilian Economy Minister Paulo Guedes said he’ll clear up any confusion from President Jair Bolsonaro’s decision to halt a planned fuel-price hike by Petrobras.

• Friday, April 12th 2019 - 09:48 UTC

  Venezuela ships a million barrels of oil to Cuba despite US sanctions

  

  Venezuela's state-run PDVSA has shipped one million barrels of oil to Cuba days after the United States imposed fresh sanctions on vessels and firms involved in exports to the island in an effort to halt oil trade between the political allies, according to a PDVSA document and tanker tracking data.