2015

During a visit to the West Qurna II oilfield in Basra, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi reiterated his government’s commitment to ensuring the security of the southern oilfields and their workers. He met with senior management of the Russian operator Lukoil, following protests by locals demanding jobs.

ERIELL, an international oilfield service group, has signed a contract with LUKOIL Middle East for drilling of 25 producing wells at the West Qurna-2 field in Iraq.

Last month, the oil giant revealed it would cut about 950 jobs in Houston, plus 500 jobs at its San Ramon headquarters, 50 international jobs and 600 contractor jobs.

Despite all denials coming from the Chinese officials in recent months, China is reportedly planning to build gigantic floating islands in the disputed South China Sea. This unchecked ambition of Chinese leaders will surely tip this already heated-up Asian sub-region into what experts called “land-grabbing tussle”, a situation that might be escalated into civil wars among China and countries like the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, Cambodia and Indonesia that also lay claim to some parts of these islands.

The Obama administration granted Royal Dutch Shell final clearance on Monday to resume drilling for oil and gas in the environmentally fragile Arctic Ocean for the first time since 2012, a move green groups vowed to fight.

Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has entered into an agreement to acquire Schlumberger Business Consulting (SBC), the management consulting unit of Schlumberger, a global leader in oilfield services.

A company of the Rosneft Group and a subsidiary of Trican Well Service Ltd. signed a framework agreement and ancillary documents, pursuant to which a Rosneft subsidiary agreed to acquire a 100% shareholding in Trican Well Service LLC, which provides high-quality pressure pumping services focused on enhancement of production within the conventional oil and gas industry in Russia.

Oil production from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) totaled 31.4 million barrels per day (b/d) in July, up 120,000 b/d from the June level of 31.28 million b/d

U.S. Rig Count is unchanged from last week at 884, with oil rigs up 2 to 672, gas rigs down 2 to 211, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 1.

India’s Oil & Natural Gas Corp.(ONGC) is reportedly negotiating with Russia’s Rosneft to purchase a share of the Vankor oil field in East Siberia, indicating that the increase in production wanted by the Russian company could come hand in hand with stronger ties with foreign companies.