May’s top news stories

ConocoPhillips sells Australia-West assets to Santos

American multinational energy company ConocoPhillips completed the sale of its subsidiaries that hold its Australia-West assets and operations to Santos for $1.265bn.

In October last year, the companies signed a deal for Santos to acquire ConocoPhillips’ northern Australia business with operating interests in Darwin LNG, Bayu-Undan, Barossa, as well as Poseidon for $1.39bn and an additional $75m in contingency payment subject to a final investment decision (FID) on Barossa.

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Google to stop building custom AI tools for oil and gas extraction

Google said that it will no longer build custom artificial intelligence tools (AI) or machine learning (ML) algorithms to speed up oil and gas extraction.

The American company decided not to build AI extraction tools after facing criticism from tech workers, politicians, and social activists over the company’s oil industry contracts.

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Chevron to cut 2020 capital spending by additional $2bn

US oil company Chevron reduced its 2020 capital expenditure (capex) budget by another $2bn to $14bn, but has posted a healthy net profit of $3.6bn in this year’s first quarter results (Q1 2020).

The company reported Q1 2020 earnings of $3.6bn or $1.93 a share, compared to earnings of $2.6bn or $1.39 per share in Q1 of 2019.

The company had initially planned to spend $20bn on 2020 capex before the market was hit by the coronavirus pandemic and low commodity prices.

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Siemens to supply compressors and generators to Indonesian refinery

German engineering company Siemens has been chosen to supply compression and power generation equipment for the Balikpapan refinery in Indonesia.

Balikpapan refinery is located on Borneo Island in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. It is owned and operated by PT Pertamina (Persero).

Siemens noted that the equipment will be installed as part of Pertamina’s Refinery Development Master Plan (RDMP), which involves the construction of a residual fluid catalytic cracker (RFCC) unit with a design capacity of 90,000 barrels per stream per day (bpsd).

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Total scraps plans to buy Occidental Petroleum’s assets in Ghana

French Total announced that it has discontinued the acquisition of Occidental Petroleum’s assets in Ghana and Algeria.

The deal was part of an $8.8bn agreement reached between Total and Occidental last year to buy Anadarko’s assets in Mozambique, Ghana, Algeria, and South Africa.

While a deal over the Mozambique assets has already been reached, Total noted that an agreement over the Ghana assets fell through after the Algerian authorities blocked Total’s acquisition of Occidental’s assets in Algeria.

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Equinor suspends 2020 production guidance due to market uncertainties

Norwegian energy firm Equinor suspended its 2020 oil and gas output guidance due to market conditions as a result of Covid19 pandemic, collapse of oil prices, and government-imposed curtailments.

The company reported adjusted earnings of $2.05bn and $0.56bn after tax in the first quarter this year (Q1 2020).

Equinor reported a $0.71bn net loss after taking net impairments of $2.45bn.

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ADNOC generates $1bn in value from Panorama Digital Command Center

The UAE’s state-owned oil company, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), reported the generation of over AED3.67bn ($1bn) in business value from its Panorama Digital Command Center since its commissioning in 2018.

The Panorama Digital Command Center is a fully integrated, real-time data visualisation centre designed to help ADNOC unlock efficiencies and identify new pathways to optimise performance.

The digital hub is said to be part of ADNOC’s ongoing strategic investments in digitisation and artificial intelligence (AI).

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KBR wins Gladstone LNG energy efficiency study contract from Santos

Engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) company KBR secured a contract to provide energy efficiency opportunities study at Gladstone LNG (GLNG).

The contract was awarded by Australian energy major Santos.

Under the contract, KBR will explore opportunities to enhance the overall energy efficiency of the plant and reduce CO2 emissions associated with the GLNG liquefaction facility, building on the company’s portfolio within the liquified natural gas (LNG) sector.

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ONEC Logistics and IBS Software partner on Canadian LNG project

IBS Software will manage the logistics operations for a large-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) project of ONEC in the Kitimat British Columbia area of Canada after signing a long-term software-as-a-service (SaaS) contract with ONEC Logistics Kitamaat.

ONEC Logistics Kitamaat is a partnership between Haisla Nation and ONEC Logistics.

Together, IBS and ONEC established a consortium-based business model that provides end-to-end logistics solutions for the LNG project.

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NextDecade postpones Rio Grande LNG project FID to next year

US-based liquefied natural gas (LNG) development company NextDecade pushed back a final investment decision (FID) by at least a year on its proposed Rio Grande LNG export plant.

The Rio Grande liquefied natural gas (RGLNG) export facility is located in Brownsville, Texas, US.

Last week, the company reportedly said that it still plans to make a FID this year on the Rio Grande LNG export plant.