October 2015

Swiss chemicals giant Ineos has bought its first British North Sea gas fields from Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman's investment fund LetterOne, outlining plans to further expand its energy resources to supports its petrochemical business.

Rosneft, as part of a PetroMiranda JV including PDVSA and Gazprom Neft, has drilled an unprecedented horizontal well GG1-14 at the Junin-6 block. The well is unique for the shallow depth, only 1,140 feet or about 347 meters, of the reservoir interval and the length of horizontal section 4,920 feet or 1,500 meters. The total length of the well is 6,059 feet (some 1,847 meters).

In the third quarter 2015, NOVATEK’s marketable production totaled 17.06 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas and 2,346 thousand tons of liquids (gas condensate and crude oil), resulting in an increase in natural gas production by 1.86 bcm, or by 12.2%, and an increase in combined liquids production by 813 thousand tons, or by 53.0% as compared with the third quarter 2014.

The probability that the world's biggest economy will enter a recession in the next 12 months jumped to 15 percent, its highest level since October 2013, according to economists surveyed Oct. 2-7 by Bloomberg. The median had held at 10 percent for 13 consecutive months.

The US is poised to sail warships close to China’s artificial islands in the South China Sea as a signal to Beijing that Washington does not recognise Chinese territorial claims over the area.

EIA estimates that total U.S. crude oil production declined by 120,000 barrels per day (b/d) in September compared with August. Crude oil production is forecast to decrease through mid-2016 before growth resumes late in 2016. Projected U.S. crude oil production averages 9.2 million b/d in 2015 and 8.9 million b/d in 2016.

U.S. Rig Count is down 14 rigs from last week to 795, with oil rigs down 9 to 605, gas rigs down 6 to 189, and miscellaneous rigs up 1 to 1.

Eurasia Drilling’s top shareholders and management have proposed taking the oil services company private, after Schlumberger walked away from making a $1.7bn investment following resistance from Russian regulators.

Russian energy giant OAO Gazprom became the latest emerging-market borrower to sell debt to international investors, taking advantage of growing expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will delay raising interest rates.

Saudi Arabia’s policy has resulted in about $220 billion worth of investment cuts worldwide, much of which is a result of project deferrals, including deepwater projects off West Africa and in the Gulf of Mexico.