The Alpha platform, which feeds into natural gas export streams to Europe, restarted on Saturday evening, operator BP said in an emailed statement. Alpha will take a few days to reach normal production and export levels after halting earlier this month. A second platform, Bravo, was unaffected.
KBR Inc. has been contracted by BP International Limited (BP) to deliver engineering, procurement, and construction management (EPCM) services for three years with an option for an additional two years. In a media release, KBR said the scope of work includes EPCM services for onshore, offshore, greenfield, and brownfield conventional energy projects and new energy sector projects worldwide.
The oil and gas explorer and producer added, “In recent years, CNOOC Limited has been continually tapping the resource potentials of the Yinggehai-Qiongdongnan Basin, to fully utilize the existing production facilities and thereby reduce the development cost of new projects”.
The Katmai West #2 well was drilled significantly under budget and ahead of schedule to a true vertical depth of approximately 27,000 feet, Talos said in a news release. The well “encountered the primary target sand full-to-base with over 400 feet of gross hydrocarbon pay and excellent rock properties in line with pre-drill expectations,” the company stated.
Europe remains vulnerable to possible shocks in natural gas supply as its exposure to LNG trading and supply has grown, Stefano Venier, CEO of one of Europe’s biggest gas grid operators, Italy’s Snam, said at the end of last year.
The battery storage plant in Moss Landing in northern Monterey County is some 77 miles south of San Francisco. The owner of the plant is Texas-based company Vistra Energy, whose shares fell in market pre-trade on Friday following the news of the fire.
The European Union and Mexico have agreed to a revamped free-trade agreement days before Trump begins a second term. Mexico, in particular, has been working to revamp the trade deal with the EU ahead of Trump’s inauguration as a way to show strength before the review of the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, known as USMCA. The U.S. is, by far, Mexico’s biggest trade partner, accounting for 83% of Mexico’s trade relationship. Trump has criticized the EU’s trade practices and said he would impose duties on exports by the bloc. He’s also said he’d impose 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico.
Brazil’s state-owned oil and gas multinational Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (NYSE:PBR), aka Petrobras, saw output from its refineries hit an all-time high in 2024 thanks to record production of gasoline and S-10 diesel. Petrobras reported that gasoline output totaled 24.4 billion liters, eclipsing the previous record of 24.2 billion liters posted in 2014 while diesel production reached 26.3 billion liters. The company’s annual refinery utilization rate was 93.2% last year, up from 92% in 2023.
President-elect Donald Trump is preparing to sign a host of executive orders related to energy in the first hours after his inauguration. Bloomberg reported that Trump plans to declare a national energy emergency right after he’s sworn in as part of his plan to boost oil and gas production.
The refining average constituted a dip, by the way, and that was the first dip in refining rates in 20 years. The cause of the dip was weaker fuel demand, which depressed refining margins in 2024. Oil demand in China was lackluster in 2024, with consumption growth slowed, due to weaker economic performance and a shift to electric vehicles and LNG-fueled trucks.