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EMU@GSR submits:Refining and marketing companies just finished reporting the worst quarterly numbers in three years, with negative earnings reported by BP (BP), ExxonMobil (XOM), Chevron (CVX), Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A), Sunoco (SUN), Valero Energy (VLO), Tesoro (TSO), Marathon Oil (MRO) and Murphy Oil (MUR). We have considered here the the refining and marketing segment profits for the integrated companies and net income of pure refining and marketing companies. Complete Story »
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David Hunkar submits:
The global energy consultancy PFC Energy has published the top 50 energy companies of the world for 2009 based on market cap. PetroChina (PTR), the integrated National Oil Company [NOC] of China, is the highest ranked company with a market cap of $353 B. PetroChina beat last year’s winner of the top spot ExxonMobil (XOM) of the U.S.
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Eamon Keane submits:On Thursday the Davos World Energy Outlook Panel took place. It's well worth a look, you can find the video or podcast here. The participants were:
Chair: Daniel Yergin - Cambridge Energy Research Associates Complete Story »
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Toby Shute submits:If the invasion of Iraq was all about exploiting the country's oil, you'd never know it from the structure of the contracts being signed by the likes of ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM), Total (NYSE: TOT), and BP (NYSE: BP). In an analysis of the West Qurna 1 license awarded to ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS.A), Dr. Peter Wells (great name for an oil analyst!) puts the government take at $444 billion, or 99% of total revenue. This guy was hired by Toyota Motor (NYSE: TM) to build a world oil supply model, so I will assume he knows his way around a spreadsheet. Complete Story »
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Craig Pirrong submits: ExxonMobil is (XOM) at loggerheads with the Russian government over the Sakhalin I project. The issue is the one that eventually spelled Shell’s (RDS.A) doom in Sakhalin II: Development costs under the production sharing agreement (PSA): The government rejected a proposal by ExxonMobil, the world’s largest company by market value, to invest $3.5 billion this year in the Sakhalin offshore fields, putting the oil producer’s plans at risk again, Sakhalin Governor Alexander Khoroshavin said Thursday.
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Dian L. Chu submits:
The West Texas Intermediate [WTI] crude oil market went into contango back in June 2008 and reached an apex super contango in late December. (Fig. 1) Since then investment firms, investors, as well as producers have been stockpiling oil and booked a record number of vessels for storage seeking to profit from the contango effect in the oil market.
In fact, the WTI futures curve serves as a good indicator of the U.S. oil inventory levels since a contango typically coincides with higher inventory levels and vice versa. The latest inventory data certainly can attest to this relationship. Complete Story »
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Investopedia submits: Chevron (NYSE: CVX) will spend 2010 trying to advance its large project inventory to focus mostly in the deepwater area - a contrary play given the industry frenzy over onshore shale gas basins. Chevron announced a capital spending budget of $21.6 billion for 2010, with 80%, or more than $17 billion, directed to exploration and development. Although this amount might encourage investors, it is a 5% decline from last year. Complete Story »
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David Hunkar submits: The complete list of oil sector related ADRs traded on the organized exchanges in the US are listed below. These stocks include oil and gas producers, distributors, equipment makers and servicing companies. | Company | Ticker | Country | 2009 Returns | | Acergy | ACGY | Norway | 170.07% | | BP | BP | United Kingdom | 24.03% | | CGG Veritas | CGV | France | 41.76% | | China National Offshore Oil-CNOOC | CEO | China | 63.22% | | China Petroleum & Chemical | SNP | China | 42.53% | | Ecopetrol | EC | Colombia | 32.06% | | Eni | E | Italy | 5.83% | | ENSCO | ESV | United Kingdom | 40.68% | | Petrobras Energia | PZE | Argentina | 156.65% | | PetroChina | PTR | China | 33.69% | | Petroleo Brasileiro | PBR | Brazil | 94.69% | | Repsol YPF | REP | Spain | 23.94% | | Royal Dutch Shell - A Shares | RDS.A | United Kingdom | 13.54% | | Royal Dutch Shell - B Shares | RDS.B | United Kingdom | 13.03% | | Samson Oil and Gas | SSN | Australia | -35.14% | | Sasol | SSL | South Africa | 31.68% | | Statoil | STO | Norway | 49.52% | | TOTAL | TOT | France | 15.80% | | Transportadora de Gas del Sur | TGS | Argentina | 43.84% | | WSP Holdings | WH | China | -26.30% | | YPF | YPF | Argentina | -4.89% | Source: BNY Mellon Depository Receipts Complete Story »
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Toby Shute submits:In 2008, Codexis was one of several biofuel firms to backtrack on an IPO when the market went moribund. Instead, the company chose to tap existing investors like Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A) as it advanced its pursuit of biocatalysts that can turn cellulosic materials into fuel. With the cleantech IPO market slowly regaining its footing -- two steps forward with A123 Systems (AONE) and one step back with Trony Solar (TRO) -- Codexis appears ready to give a public listing another shot. The catalyst company is once again seeking a listing on the Nasdaq, and to raise perhaps as much as $100 million from the public. Complete Story »
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 Phil Davis submits: Is "extortion" too strong a word for what’s being done to us? Extortion is a criminal offense which occurs when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion. Coercion is the practice of forcing another party to behave in an involuntary manner (whether through action or inaction) by use of threats, intimidation, trickery, or some other form of pressure or force. Such actions are used as leverage, to force the victim to act in the desired way. Coercion may involve the actual infliction of physical pain/injury or psychological harm in order to enhance the credibility of a threat. The threat of further harm may lead to the cooperation or obedience of the person being coerced.
Complete Story »
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Dennis U. Atuanya submits:
Nigeria currently holds the world’s tenth largest reserves of crude oil and is the fifth highest supplier to the United States. She also boasts the world’s seventh largest natural gas deposits. The country is currently a battleground of sorts in a contest that has pitched International Oil Companies, IOCs, against a Chinese National Oil Company, NOC, for a significant proportion of Nigeria’s 36 billion-barrel crude oil reserves. A Petroleum Industry Bill, currently before the country’s legislature is the first major restructuring of the country’s (hitherto notoriously inefficient and corruption-laden) oil and gas sector in decades. The bill, among other items, provides for an increased take by the Federal Government from companies’ production proceeds, a situation that the IOCs have decried as economically asphyxiating. The timing for the bill could not have been more inauspicious for the IOCs and for four reasons: First, most of the IOC-held oil mining licences are currently up for renewal. Secondly, over the past ten years, major IOCs have seen increasing difficulty to profitable discovery and production of crude oil. Third, the recent economic recession has even more significantly reduced their earnings, with recovery rather precarious. Finally, CNOOC (CEO), a Chinese NOC (one of two or three currently flaunting intimidating financial arsenal) has dramatically raised the stakes by offering as much as US$50 billion for a significant portion of Nigeria’s reserves (including some of those licences due for renewal); an offer that has left many of the operating IOCs griping. Complete Story »
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Greentech Media submits: By Eric Wesoff 2010 is going to see the return of the IPO, especially in greentech. Monday saw another Greentech IPO registration filing, this time from Codexis, a provider of biocatalysts. We'll report on the S-1 in detail shortly but a quick take shows the company losing money on $58 million in revenue in the first nine months of 2009. Complete Story »
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Iraq currently boasts the world’s third-largest proven reserves of conventional crude oil, behind Iran and Saudi Arabia. Figure 1 shows countries with the largest crude oil reserves. If Canada’s tar sands were factored in, then Iraq would be edged into fourth place. Oil and gas data for Iraq, however date back more than three decades, long before the technological improvements that have transformed the oil and gas industry. The implication then is that the figures for the country’s recoverable reserves are most likely significantly higher than previously reckoned. This may have informed the bids entered by companies in the second Iraqi oil block auction, which was held last week.  The auction for ten oil service contracts (as distinct from outright concessions or production sharing contracts) was a testament of sorts to the increasing dominance of National Oil Companies, NOCs in the global oil and gas sector. West Qurna Phase 2, the largest oilfield (about 12.9 billion barrels) offered by the Iraqi government at the licensing round was won by the Russian privately held company, Lukoil ( LUKOY.PK) in association with Statoil ( STO), Norway’s state-controlled oil company. This was closely followed by the Majnoon (about 12.6 billion barrels) field won by Royal Dutch Shell ( RDS.A) (45%) in association with Petronas ( PNAGF.PK) (30%), the Malaysian NOC. The Halfaya field (about 4.1 billion barrels) was won by a consortium led by the Chinese NOC, CNPC in association with Malaysia’s NOC, Petronas and the major, Total ( TOT) (the Iraqi government took up the balance). Petronas won the bid for the Garraf (about 863 million barrels) field in association with Japex. Sonangol, the Angolan NOC won bids for the Najmah (about 800 million barrels) and Qaiyarah (about 858 million barrels) fields. Even the smaller field Badra (about 109 million barrels), was won by a partnership of four NOCs. In all, Petronas and Sonangol were involved in five successful bids. Only three European International Oil Companies, IOCs, were successful, while no U.S. IOC was successful. Angola, on the southwest coast of Africa recently joined the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC and has since ramped up her production. The country’s offshore fields are part of the massive Atlantic petroleum provinces of Africa. China’s NOC entered the most bids by any company and won two majority stakes while two Russian companies (the NOC Gazprom ( OGZPY.PK) and the privately held Lukoil) were successful. The auction provided for the Iraqi government to pay the companies a bid amount for each barrel of crude oil produced by the companies above current production levels. The comparatively low bid values entered by the companies were indicative of the keenness of the competition. For example, the winning bid by the Royal Dutch Shell and Petronas partnership (which pledged to raise production to 1.8 million barrels per day, bpd, from the current 46,000 bpd) for the Majnoon field was US$1.39 per barrel, well below a delighted Iraqi Oil Ministry’s expectation. That for the Halfaya field entered by the CNPC consortium was US$1.40 per barrel. The latter pledged to raise production from the current 3,000 bpd to 535,000 bpd. In a previous post, l discussed the challenges facing International Oil Companies. Essentially, in addition to the increasing difficulty to profitable discovery and production of crude oil, they face increasing threats from NOCs. For example, the Chinese NOCs, bolstered by an intimidating financial war chest (often procured on more favorable terms than IOCs can), lower operating costs (in terms of labor and materials) and the leverage of state (which can confer the ability to operate even in the world’s high-risk zones, and that, without shareholders’ scrutiny) are increasingly unassailable. Other NOCs (and many of them with very large, state oil and gas reserves domiciled with them) are not too far behind. Many of the IOCs such as Royal Dutch Shell, BP and ConocoPhilips ( COP) have recently reduced staff strength and spun off assets in initial cost-cutting and restructuring measures. Synergies in partnerships (such as these) with NOCs also offer IOCs avenues for viability in the face of fierce competition. A partnership between BP and the Chinese NOC, CNPC for example, for the development of the Rumaila field (Iraq’s largest, with about 17 billion barrels), was the only successful bid in Iraq’s first licensing round which held in June. Mergers and acquisitions (such as the recent acquisition by ExxonMobil (XOM), of XTO Energy) may be next. The said recent acquisition may provoke a series of M&A activity involving major IOCs and shale gas companies. The not-too-good news is that questions remain about the viability of shale gas though technological advances may just do the trick. In a related development, Royal Dutch Shell reportedly reached agreement with the Republic of South Africa to carryout a preliminary study on a prospective hydrocarbon field in the Karoo Basin, which will grant the company exclusive exploration rights to the field, believed to be a natural gas field. Current natural gas inventories in the U.S. are still high, while the price regimes are not at their best. With high levels of financial exposure by some of the shale gas companies, ExxonMobil, with a much larger financial war chest and reputable research and development facilities, may be better placed (than these smaller shale gas companies) to develop the shale gas technology and perhaps extend to foreign shale formations. Iraq’s second postwar oil licensing round was widely believed to be successful. Many oil companies keenly vied for one of the world’s largest, largely unexploited, easily accessible and cheaply exploitable crude oil reserves remaining. The process is expected to boost the country’s production capacity to more than 11 million bpd from the current 2.4 million bpd within ten years; and this could top the dominant Saudi Arabia. Since Iraq is also an OPEC member, what adjustment this would necessitate among OPEC members’ production, remains to be seen. Such substantial addition to global production may also significantly moderate prices subject of course to geopolitical considerations. That said, it is “not yet Uhuru” for Iraq’s oil and gas sector. For example, these contracts still have to be ratified, and that, probably after next year’s elections. All parties to the auction remain cautiously optimistic that a new regime would respect the contracts and not nullify them. In addition, several hotly disputed fields such as those in the Kurdish areas remain flash points, while fields such as the massive (eight-billion barrel) East Baghdad situated in politically unstable and terrorism-prone areas were largely avoided.
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David Fessler submits: As the United States slowly digs itself out of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, big changes loom large on the horizon. Earlier last week, my colleague Marc Lichtenfeld detailed the impact that a healthcare reform bill will have on the various industries and stocks within the healthcare and biotech sectors. Complete Story »
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Streetwise Blog submits:
By Andrew Willis Here’s a little more intelligence on Alberta’s $384 million land sale, which opened up a new natural gas play in the province.
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