Oil prices fell in Monday’s morning session as traders await U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration in the hope of some clarity on his policy agenda. Brent crude for March delivery was down 1.5% to trade at $79.66 per barrel at 11.20 am ET while WTI crude for February delivery declined 1.8% to $76.46 per barrel. According to PVM oil analyst Tamas Varga, the price declines can be chalked up to the huge uncertainty over the incoming president’s new policies.
CPEC power projects have burdened Pakistan with unsustainable loans and high electricity costs. Yet, Pakistan is the only South Asian country facing chronic power shortages, with load-shedding rampant even in cities like Karachi. According to AidData, Pakistan’s debt exposure to Beijing for the period from 2000-2021 clocked in at $67.2 billion, with CPEC having added almost $26 billion to Pakistan’s government debt. Yet, the repeated calls by Islamabad to Beijing to restructure its $15 billion energy debt have gone unheeded.
The Biden administration advanced a plan to limit oil drilling and infrastructure across more of Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve, a bid to lock in land protections and conservation requirements days before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
West Texas Intermediate was up almost 2% for the week, even after retreating below $78 a barrel on Friday. The Biden administration’s harshest ever curbs on Russian oil have shaken up markets, with freight costs rocketing and long-standing buyers of the country’s crude, including China and India, looking elsewhere for supplies.
The US risks forfeiting a global competition to dominate artificial intelligence if it doesn’t build more reliable, always-on electricity to supply the industry, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Interior Department warned Thursday.
Devon Energy Corp. has promoted John Raines as Senior Vice President for Exploration and Production Asset Management. The company said in a media release it has also named Trey Lowe as Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer.
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.