Global clean energy investment was $53.6 billion in the first quarter of 2017, down 17 per cent from the same period in 2016.
30 crude and natural gas projects are expected to start operations in the North Sea by 2020. The UK will lead with a total of 19 projects, followed by Norway with 10 and Denmark with a single project, according to GlobalData. The total recoverable reserves for these projects are expected to stand at 5.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent. The planned projects in the North Sea They are expected to require a total capital expenditure of $56.7 billion, of which over half (54%) is expected to be spent between 2017 and 2020.
A deal to give Russia’s Rosneft 49.9% ownership of US refiner Citgo if Venezuela’s cash-strapped national oil company PDVSA defaults on its loans threatens US national security and should be investigated by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, two US congressmen have said. “This would give Russia clear control over the sixth-largest refinery in our country, the ability to impact gas prices for the American people, and a strategic advantage over US freedom of action globally,” Representative Jeff Duncan, Republican-South Carolina, said in a statement.
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The German company E.ON is investing in the development of airborne wind energy, which offers “game-changing technologies for renewable energy production”.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel encouraged Spain and Portugal to invest more in solar energy and said they need a better link to France amid a push for a unified European power grid.
In the Middle East North Africa region $622 billion worth of development is planned in the energy sector for the next five years. The power sector accounts for the largest share at $207 billion, with the oil and gas sector at $195 billion and $159 billion respectively. Leading the drive will be Saudi Arabia, and Iraq and Iran will play catch-up. Algeria will pump billions into its upstream sector, and much is expected from Egypt’s recent gas. Renewable-energy projects will be at the forefront of efforts to meet rising power demand in Morocco, Tunisia and Jordan.
Russian president Vladimir Putin met with Saudi Defense Minister in Sochi on October 11th, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was holding a meeting with his Saudi counterpart. The parties discussed Syria and agreed upon the necessity to prevent the creation of a terrorist caliphate. The levers of a hypothetical Russian-Saudi deal would be: a rise in oil prices, possibly accompanied by Saudi arms purchases, and on the Russian side, the guarantee that Assad will leave after a transition period, along with some kind of a Saudi “right of scrutiny” on Russian arms sales to Iran.
DetailsWest African producers led by Angola and Nigeria are set to send crude to China at the rate of 1.48 million barrels a day in April, the most since Bloomberg began compiling the data in August 2011, according to loading programs and traders. Overall Asian imports of West African crude are poised to reach 2.4 million barrels a day this month, also a record. Asia’s increasing purchases of West African crude provides a valuable source of income for Angola and Nigeria, both of which rely heavily on oil revenues to fund government spending.
DetailsChina’s largest crude oil refiner Sinopec aims to ship more cargoes from Brazil, the United States and Canada to help ensure stable crude supplies. Asia, which will account for a third of the world’s refining capacity by 2020 will have to look beyond the traditional markets Middle East and Africa for crude supplies. China will soon import its first Southern Green Canyon and Thunderhorse crude from the United States, and Brazil overtook Venezuela as the top South American crude supplier to China in the first two months of this year.
DetailsVenezuela’s economy is in slow collapse, accelerated by the fall in oil prices; oil service companies such as Schlumberger are cutting back activities because they are not being paid; and Russia has become the leading foreign oil investor. Russia is also the country’s key financier. Venezuela has pledged half the shares of its subsidiary Citgo – an important US refiner and fuel-retailer – as collateral for the loans from Russia’s Rosneft. If Venezuela were to default, the prospect of the Russian state firm owning American refineries would be political dynamite in Washington.
DetailsAccording to the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, major construction at three of China’s large man-made islands in the disputed South China Sea is wrapping up, allowing Beijing to deploy fighter jets and mobile missile launchers to the area at any time. China has continued to militarize the waters as it seeks to reinforce effective control of much of the waterway, through which $5 trillion in trade passes each year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also have overlapping claims.
DetailsPetroChina’s profit fell 78% to the lowest on record as the oil price crash punished the country’s biggest oil and gas producer for a third year. Net income dropped to 7.86 billion yuan (US$1.1 billion). While PetroChina expects its crude production to fall a second year in 2017, it sees gas sales rising 10% this year and to be its main growth driver to the end of the decade. PetroChina expects its 2017 global crude production to be 879 million barrels, down 4.5%.
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