The Trump administration’s tariff regime, intended to boost US manufacturing and inflict punitive damage on Chinese manufacturing, has disrupted multiple industrial supply chains into the US with cascading effects across other regions. For the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region’s oilfield services (OFS) sector, the effects are indirect but may be significant if unmitigated by national oil companies (NOCs) and OFS suppliers.
The U.S. move to penalize China-built and China-owned vessels calling at U.S. ports could lead to an oil supertanker made in China and operated by a Chinese company facing a fee of up to $5.2 million per call at a U.S. port, shipbrokers have estimated.
The U.S. last week announced fees on vessel owners and operators of China based on net tonnage per U.S. voyage. The previous proposal was a per-port-entry fee of up to $1.5 million on Chinese-built vessels, and up to a $1 million per-port-entry fee on any vessel (Chinese-built or non-Chinese-built) for operators that have any Chinese-built vessels in their fleet or orderbook.
China slashed its imports of many U.S. energy and agricultural commodities in March amid intensifying trade and tariff tensions with the United States, which are set to further reduce Chinese purchases of American goods this month and in the coming months.
China’s LNG imports from the United States crashed to zero in March as China slapped tariffs on American LNG and other energy products, making these uneconomical for Chinese buyers.
Last year, U.S. LNG represented about 5% of China’s imports of the super-chilled fuel.
ADNOC has signed term deals for the supply of LNG with Chinese buyers ENN Natural Gas and state-owned Zenhua Oil, Reuters reported on Saturday.
Privately owned natural gas company ENN Natural Gas agreed to buy about 1 million tonnes per year for a period of 15 years. The deal represents ADNOC’s largest-ever LNG supply contract with a Chinese buyer, according to the report.
TotalEnergies has commenced production from the Ballymore deepwater field in the US Gulf of Mexico, the company said on Monday.
The company holds a 40% stake in the project alongside Chevron as operator with 60%.
Located 120 kilometres off Louisiana’s coast, the Ballymore field ties back to Chevron’s Blind Faith floating production unit. It has a daily gross production capacity of 75,000 bopd and 50 mcf (1.4 mcm) of gas. The project, launched in May 2022, uses existing infrastructure and standardised equipment to minimise development costs and emissions.
Russia downgraded its outlook for exports this year and lowered expectations for the price for its oil, developments that may force the government to dip into its wealth fund to cover wartime spending.
The Economy Ministry forecast a 5.3% decline in exports to 410.6 billion rubles ($5 billion), down from an earlier projection of 445 billion rubles, the Interfax news service reported on Monday. The updated macroeconomic outlook also included a lower price for Urals oil of $56 a barrel, versus $69.70 seen earlier.
Wood has secured two engineering and procurement framework agreements worth $11 million from TotalEnergies EP Ratawi Hub to support redevelopment work at Iraq’s Ratawi oil field.
The contracts are part of the Gas Growth Integrated Project (GGIP), a multi-energy initiative aimed at improving Iraq’s natural gas production and electricity supply. Under the three-year agreements, Wood will help advance the Associated Gas Upstream Project (AGUP), a key component of GGIP that involves debottlenecking and upgrading existing facilities.
The contract, issued as a Limited Notice to Proceed (LNTP), allows MODEC to begin early-phase work on the FPSO while awaiting regulatory and government approvals. Phase one of the project will involve front-end engineering and design (FEED), followed by engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (EPCI) in phase two—pending final project sanction by ExxonMobil Guyana and its Stabroek Block co-venturers.
The Hammerhead FPSO will have a production capacity of 150,000 barrels of oil per day, along with processing facilities for associated gas and water. It will be moored in approximately 1,025 meters of water using a SOFEC spread mooring system.
The LNTP enables MODEC to begin FPSO design activities to support an early project startup target of 2029, should approvals move forward.
Chevron Corp. has started oil and natural gas production from the Ballymore field, a deepwater subsea tieback in the Gulf of Mexico/Gulf of America.
The project, located about 160 miles southeast of New Orleans in the Mississippi Canyon area, is Chevron’s first development in the Norphlet trend. Ballymore connects three production wells to the existing Blind Faith facility, eliminating the need for a new offshore platform.
Oil has dropped about $10 this month as the trade fight started by President Donald Trump stoked fears of a global recession that would hurt energy demand, especially in the US and China, the biggest crude consumers. Concerns about the growth outlook have led agencies to cut projections for oil usage and analysts to slash price forecasts, with the possibility of a glut amplified by OPEC+’s surprise decision to bring back output more quickly than expected.