May 2015

Recent and projected increases in U.S. crude oil production have sparked discussion about how current limitations on crude exports affect prices, including world and domestic crude oil and petroleum product prices, and the level of domestic crude production and refining activity.

Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh will visit Germany on May 7th after a large German economic delegation of more than 100 businessmen arrived in Tehran in late April to spur bilateral ties.

Condensate is especially important now because it’s not covered by sanctions on Russia’s oil industry that have targeted Arctic drilling and shale projects. Production of the ultra- light crude will swell as much as 17% this year, according to estimates by Gazprombank. That makes it a key factor driving growth, said Alexander Nazarov, an analyst at the country’s third biggest lender.

Occidental Petroleum Corp boosted its 2015 production forecast on Wednesday after reporting an adjusted quarterly profit in line with expectations as cost cuts helped balance the recent drop in oil prices. Occidental raised its 2015 output forecast by 20,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d), citing “a more optimistic outlook for the remainder of the year.”

A flagship Russian gas project may soon test Moscow’s newfound willingness to cede greater control of its energy assets to Beijing in exchange for much-needed Chinese financing.

The gas war between Russia and the West has been limited to the verbal so far and not seen any casualties except for the cancellation of the South Stream project.

China appointed new heads for each of its three national oil companies on Monday, in a sweeping reshuffle of the industry at the heart of its two-year anti-corruption drive.

Banks in the U.S. are cutting credit lines to energy companies and forcing firms to cough up more collateral to guard against fallout from the past year’s plunge in oil prices, a Federal Reserve survey found.

U.S. Rig Count is down 27 rigs from last week to 905, with oil rigs down 24 to 679, gas rigs down 3 to 222, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 4.

Last December Moscow took Europe by surprise with an announcement that South Stream, a 63 billion cubic metre (bcm) pipeline designed to bring Russian natural gas to southern Europe across the Black Sea would be scrapped and replaced with a pipeline of similar capacity that would cross Turkey and stop at its border with Greece.