Month: November 2020

$5.8B Reko Diq Dispute Award: Pakistan, Tethyan Talking

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The World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) last year ordered Pakistan to pay damages of $5.84 billion to Tethyan Copper – a joint venture between Chile’s Antofagasta and Canada’s Barrick Gold – for blocking Tethyan from developing the Reko Diq copper asset after it had already sunk more than $220 million into the project in Balochistan. The ICSID in July 2019 announced $6 billion award against Pakistan which included $4 billion penalty and almost $2 billion in interest as damages payable to Tethyan. Odds appear to…

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African Oil Producers Face Slump In Production

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The five largest producers of crude oil in Africa face a combined production decline of 19 percent as a result of the pandemic’s effect on oil demand and the acceleration of energy transition efforts, according to a new report by PwC. The Africa oil and gas review 2020 notes that the pandemic has caused the worst oil industry crisis in history and that oil demand will likely never recover to pre-pandemic levels. This demand loss will also drive lower revenues for oil exporters, the authors of the reports said, helped…

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Ghana Tells Eni To Merge Oil Field With Local Discovery

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Ghana has told Italy’s Eni to merge its Sankofa offshore discovery with another field, discovered by a locally based company, Bloomberg reports, citing a letter by Ghanaian Energy Minister John-Peter Amewu. The letter follows the failure of Eni and the local company, Springfield Exploration and Production, to reach an agreement on how to develop the fields jointly. Eni, which operates the Sankofa discovery together with commodity trading giant Vitol, is against the move, according to the report, arguing that Springfield has not made sufficient tests at its discovery, Afina, to…

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Australia-China Spat Threatens LNG Deal

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A sharp worsening in relations between Australia and China could threaten a deal that would have seen Woodside Petroleum sell a stake in a natural gas field and in the $16-billion Scarborough liquefied natural gas project. The chief executive officer of Woodside, Peter Coleman, told Reuters in an interview that the talks for the stake sales had been suspended several months ago, adding that he still hoped they will be resumed after the diplomatic row is resolved. The row erupted when Australia insisted on an international inquiry into the origin of the coronavirus that…

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IEA cuts oil demand outlook on concerns over vaccine’s impact

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The International Energy Agency cut forecasts for global oil demand amid new lockdown measures and cautioned that the vaccine breakthrough won’t quickly revive markets. While crude prices rallied to a 10-week high above $45 in London this week on news of Pfizer Inc.’s progress, fuel use won’t experience any “significant” boost from vaccines until the second half of next year, the agency said. The Paris-based IEA, which advises most major economies, reduced oil-demand projections for this quarter sharply, by 1.2 million barrels a day. Brent crude steadied on Thursday after…

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