September 2015

Amidst the gloomy days of August when Brent Crude bottomed out at $42/bbl, the acquisition of Cameron by Schlumberger ($14.8 billion) took place as one of the largest mergers in the oil patch, following the tie-up of Halliburton and Baker Hughes ($32 billion) in November 2014. This consolidation has resulted in an integrated service & equipment provider covering the full oil & gas lifecycle from reservoir to first flow.

On measures including cash flow, profit margins and share prices, OAO Rosneft, Lukoil PJSC-- Russia’s two largest oil producers -- and OAO Gazprom Neft are performing better than Royal Dutch Shell Plc, BP Plc or Exxon Mobil Corp.

U.S. crude-oil futures remained in negative territory Tuesday in Asian trade, tracking the previous day’s drop in Brent crude when U.S. markets were shut for a holiday.

Saudi Aramco, the kingdom's state oil giant, is talking to banks about raising a $5 billion loan related to a refinery it built in collaboration with China's Sinopec.

The deal with BASF gives Gazprom full control of a jointly operated European gas trading and storage business, the main strategic rationale.

The Turkish Stream project is a Russian proposal which will transport Russian gas to Europe while bypassing Ukraine. The project is planned to carry 63 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Europe via the Turkish-Greek border. Turkey is due to receive 15.75 billion cubic meters out of the total capacity of the pipeline.

US shale producers reported a cash outflow of more than $30bn in the first half of the year, in a sign of the challenges facing the US’s once-booming industry as the slump in oil prices begins to take effect. The shortfall points to a rise in bankruptcies and restructurings in the US shale oil industry, which has expanded rapidly in the past seven years but has never covered its capital expenditure from its cash flow.

U.S. Rig Count is down 13 rigs from last week to 864, with oil rigs down 13 to 662, gas rigs unchanged at 202, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 0.

Britain's North Sea oil and gas sector has shed more than 5,000 jobs since late last year, the country's new Oil and Gas Authority said on Monday, putting an official figure on job losses resulting from a year-long decline in oil prices.

Rosneft Vietnam B.V., общество группы ОАО «НК «Роснефть», и японская Japan Drilling Co., Ltd (JDC) через свою дочернюю компанию Hakuryu 5, Inc. подписали договор о предоставлении и эксплуатации морской буровой установки HAKURYU- 5 для бурения поисково-разведочных скважин в рамках проектов «Роснефти» во Вьетнаме. С помощью установки планируется пробурить две скважины на блоках 06.1 и 05.3/11 бассейна Нам Кон Шон на шельфе Вьетнама в 2016 г.