
Oil prices slipped on Tuesday as worries that a weakening global economy would dent demand for the commodity outweighed the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' (OPEC) decision to extend supply cuts until next March.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com - After years of drilling and development and billions of U.S. dollars of investment, Argentina’s vast shale play Vaca Muerta has finally seen the first tangible results with the first exports of light crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the resource-rich formation.

Venezuelan oil exports fell by 17% in May compared to April, due to the difficulty to sell barrels of heavy crude oil that US refiners used to buy and process before the sanctions imposed on the Nicolás Maduro government, reported Reuters.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday blamed Iran for attacks this month on oil tankers in the Gulf, saying it was an effort by Tehran to raise the global price of oil.

Eike Batista, once the richest man in Brazil, has been fined around US$134 million for insider trading, the securities commission said on Monday as the ex-billionaire remains under house arrest pending an appeal against a 30-year jail sentence.

Oil prices edged up on Thursday to extend gains into a third straight session, as tensions in the Middle East stoked fears of potential disruptions to supply. Brent crude futures were at US$72.04 a barrel at 0110 GMT, up 27 cents, or 0.4per cent, from their last close. Brent closed up 0.7per cent on Wednesday.

YPF, the largest oil and natural gas producer in Argentina, is focusing on shale oil for production growth as a glut slows natural gas output, managers at the state-backed company said Friday.

Shell plans to invest as much as US$2 billion annually in its Brazilian operations by 2025, Shell’s chief executive officer Ben van Beurden told Brazilian business daily Valor Economico in an exclusive interview published on Thursday.

Brazil expects to collect some US$ 30 billion in signing bonuses this year from three upcoming offshore oil auctions set for October and November, an official revealed this week.

Chevron Corp completed a US$ 350 million purchase of a refinery in the Houston suburb of Pasadena, Texas, from Brazil’s Petrobras, Chevron said in a statement. The sale was agreed to in January, but Chevron put the transfer of the 112,229-barrel-per-day plant’s ownership on hold on April 2, telling Petrobras it had to prove the refinery would operate as promised.