Tag Archives: Energy

How Norway Became Europe’s Biggest Power Exporter

The world’s largest synchronous electricity network has allowed many European countries to make power trading a part of everyday grid balancing. Until now, France has usually acted as the grid’s largest exporter, thanks to its location and nuclear fleet. But in 2020, Norway rose above France to become Europe’s powerhouse. What changed in the two countries, and is this an anomaly or a trend?

Renewables threaten to revolutionise the geopolitics of power generation, but until then, location is everything. Germany consumes the largest amount of power in Europe, with most of this coming from coal-fired plants. But as the country attempts to phase out more than 20GW of fossil fuels, how will it power its heavy industries?

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World Oil: Staale Gjervik on New ExxonMobil / Microsoft Digital Partnership

IRVING, Texas — ExxonMobil has announced that a new partnership with Microsoft will make its Permian basin operations the largest-ever oil and gas acreage to use cloud technology and is expected to generate billions in net cash flow over the next decade through improvements in analyses and enhancements to operational efficiencies.

“The combination of Microsoft’s technologies with our unique strengths in oilfield technologies, production efficiency and integration will help drive growth in the Permian and serve as a model for additional implementation across the U.S. and abroad,” said Staale Gjervik, senior V.P., Permian Integrated Development for XTO. “The unconventional business is fast moving, complex and data rich, which makes it well suited for the application of digital technologies to strengthen our operations and help deliver greater value.”

Read entire article HERE.

Reuters: Norway oil sector lowers 2019 investment forecast

Oil and gas companies working in Norway have lowered their investment forecasts for 2019 to 172.7 billion crowns ($20.1 billion) from 175.3 billion crowns seen in November, a survey by the country’s statistics agency (SSB) showed on Thursday.

In 2020 investments are expected to fall to 158.5 billion crowns, according to initial forecasts, though the forecasts could be revised upwards in the months to come, it added.

Read entire article HERE.

See the SSB article on the survey (Norwegian) HERE.

World Oil: NPD reports production figures for January 2019

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Chart: Norwegian Petroleum Directorate.

STAVANGER — Preliminary production figures for January 2019 show an average daily production of 1,8 MMbbl of oil, NGL and condensate, which is a decrease of 30 Mbp day compared to December 2018.

Total gas sales were 11.2 billion Sm3 (GSm3), which is an increase of 0.5 GSm3 from the previous month.

Average daily liquids production in January was: 1.4 MMbbl of oil, 333 Mbbl of NGL and 28 Mbbl of condensate.

Oil production is approx. 0.5% lower than the NPD’s forecast.

Read the entire article HERE.

World Oil: Wood awarded EPCI contract by Equinor in Norway

HOUSTON – Wood has secured a new $13 million contract with Equinor to deliver engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (EPCI) services to the Vigdis boosting station increased oil recovery (IOR) project.

Effective immediately, Wood will provide topside modifications to enable the tie-in of subsea equipment to offshore platforms Snorre A and Snorre B, which process oil from the Vigdis subsea field, located in the Norwegian North Sea.

Read entire article HERE.

Reuters: Five companies, including Equinor, bid to supply New York with offshore wind power

Five companies, including Norway’s Equinor, Denmark’s Orsted and France’s EDF have submitted bids to supply offshore wind power to the New York state, the companies said on Thursday.

New York state closed bidding on.ny.gov/2E54m5q on Thursday to provide 800-megawatts of offshore wind energy, a part of a plan develop up to 2,400 megawatts (MW) of offshore wind power by 2030, and will choose a supplier in the spring.

Equinor is planning to build a wind park on 80,000 acres south of Long Island it won in a U.S. federal auction in 2016, with potential total capacity of up to 2,000 MW, in push to diversify its investments away from oil and gas.

Read entire article HERE.

Bloomberg: The Curious Case of Norway’s 60 Million Barrels of Missing Oil

Norway has built a reputation as one of the calmest and most predictable corners of the global oil industry, but lately it’s been full of surprises.

During the worst downturn in a generation, from 2014 to 2016, companies would regularly exceed official forecasts as oil production rose in defiance of falling prices. More recently, with crude surging back to multiyear highs, they’ve run into trouble.

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate now expects output to fall to a 31-year low in 2019, with production expected to be almost 60 million barrels short of its previous forecast for this year and in 2018. That’s 80,000 barrels a day less than expected.

Read whole article HERE.

Bloomberg: Norway Labor Lawmaker Says He’s Open to Debate on Oil Policy

For establishment politicians in Norway, discussing changes to the country’s oil policies is akin to swearing in church.

That’s what happened this week, when the Labor Party’s top energy lawmaker, said he was open to debating taxes and incentives for oil companies, including a lucrative exploration cash refund. Labor is the biggest opposition party and the comments carry extra weight because the group is backed by powerful oil worker unions and has been an industry ally since Norway started producing petroleum in the 1970s.

Even if Labor’s Espen Barth Eide, a former foreign minister, later downplayed his comments, saying in an interview that no imminent changes are planned, Norway’s top oil lobbyist called the situation “very serious” and demanded a clarification from the party leadership.

“The oil industry is extremely vulnerable to uncertainty,” said Karl Eirik Schjott-Pedersen, the head of the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association, and also a former Labor Party minister. “Investors aren’t just looking at the current term. Uncertainty about what might come from future governments will also have an impact on their investments.”

Read entire article HERE.

Bloomberg & DNV GL: Confident Oil Industry Set to Ratchet Up Spending in 2019

After years of gloom, the oil industry’s out of its slump.

Three-quarters of senior oil and gas professionals surveyed by energy and maritime services company DNV GL AS say they are optimistic about the sector’s growth in 2019, their sunniest outlook since before the crude-price collapse in 2014. Confidence across the energy industry is now where it was in 2010, when Brent soared to $95 a barrel, about 50 percent above today’s level.

That good cheer will translate into higher spending, with 70 percent of professionals saying they’ll maintain or increase capital expenditure budgets this year. Many companies now say they’re competitive even as oil-price volatility heightens in reaction to geopolitical turmoil, after cutting costs to survive a collapse that lasted until 2017.

“Growth will be important and there is a strong belief in new investment,” said Liv Hovem, chief executive officer of DNV GL’s oil and gas unit. “They’re quite confident that there will be a demand for oil and gas going forward. They’re also confident about their competitiveness.”

Read entire article HERE.