Wood noted in that statement that it will provide maintenance services and shutdown support to optimize operational performance of the Gippsland Basin Joint Venture’s offshore assets in the Bass Strait and the Longford and Long Island Point facilities. The company highlighted in that statement that the Bass Strait is the largest single source of natural gas for the domestic market in Australia and pointed out that it supplies approximately 40 percent of the country’s east coast demand.
Kent said this initiative will significantly enhance project value by streamlining the transition from the Design Basis Scoping Paper to the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) stage. This integrated approach reduces traditional bidding periods, enabling earlier planning and execution of critical activities, which in turn boosts scheduling efficiency and accelerates project delivery, it said.
The company’s net debt rose to the highest in almost three years during the first quarter as it spends tens of billions of dollars on operations and a massive dividend amid softened oil prices. Aramco’s gearing ratio – a measure of its indebtedness – of 5.3 percent is far below that of most other oil majors, giving the firm room for increased borrowing.
Crude briefly flipped to positive earlier in the session after CNN said fresh penalties on Moscow may be announced in the coming days, potentially bolstering the risks to crude supplies in one of the world’s largest producers. US President Donald Trump said he’s considering new sanctions against Russia after large drone attacks on Ukraine in recent days.
The port of Vancouver last year saw a surge in petroleum cargo flows thanks to the completed expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline. The expansion tripled the pipeline’s capacity, boosting oil flows from the east to the west. Earlier this year, Canadian media reported that the port handled a record amount of goods in 2024 thanks to the surge in oil exports. These exports alone soared by 527%.
The reason for these expectations is the decision by OPEC+ to keep returning supply to the market. OPEC+ is meeting later today and most observers appear to have assumed it will announce yet another monthly hike of 411,000 barrels daily for July. It is this expected hike that, according to the Reuters refining sources, will drive lower prices for Saudi oil.
The statement from Musk, however, doesn’t mean that fossil fuels are irrelevant. Musk warned in 2022 that the world would need to continue extracting oil and gas lest civilization start to crumble. “Realistically, I think we need to use oil and gas in the short term because otherwise, civilization will crumble,” adding that the transition to sustainable energy would “take some decades to complete.”
Despite the market’s hand-wringing, OPEC+ appears determined to stick with its roadmap to gradually restore output that was cut during the COVID-era slump. The unwinding plan has been telegraphed for months, and reversing course now could risk credibility—something the group has worked hard to reestablish.
Alberta’s wildfire season is off to a fiery start, with a major blaze near the town of Swan Hills prompting evacuations and temporarily shuttering oil operations. The fire—burning out of control and spanning roughly 1,600 hectares—is just 7 km from Swan Hills, forcing the town’s 1,200 residents to flee Monday night.
This is the third major contract closed by ADNOC Drilling with ADNOC Offshore in just over a month, and brings total contract awards to USD 3.6 billion. In April, the company secured a USD 1.63-billion, five-year engagement for integrated drilling services. In May, it won a USD 806-million contract to deliver three newbuild island rigs for the Zakum offshore development project in Abu Dhabi.