GLOBAL OFFSHORE UPDATE

Sweden’s Viking Supply Ships, which is undergoing extensive restructuring, is pushing ahead with a SEK348m ($37.7m) share sale.

Two of the world’s fastest-growing economies have barely noticed the first year of unrestricted U.S. crude exports since the 1970s. In the first year since the U.S. lifted a 40-year-ban on most exports, less than 3% have gone to China and India even as their demand for oil grew. India hasn’t taken a drop, according to U.S. Census data.

Five people were killed after their helicopter crashed into the sea during an offshore rescue operation. The helicopter was sent out to medevac an offshore worker suffering from cardiac arrest on board the Amir Kabir offshore platform shortly before the tragedy unfolded.

When OPEC exempted Nigeria from its plan to cut oil output for the first time in eight years, it highlighted how far Africa’s biggest producer has fallen. From January to October, just over three wells a month were drilled in Nigeria, down from a monthly average of almost 22 in 2006, according to petroleum ministry data. While output rebounded to 2.1 MMbpd from the 27-year low in August, that’s just half the government’s goal at the start of the millennium.

Royal Dutch Shell expects to pump out all the fossil fuel reserves listed on its balance sheet, its chief executive said, dismissing concerns that production limits in the wake of the Paris climate accord could hit the energy giant's valuation. In an interview with Dutch newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad, Ben van Beurden said the issue of "stranded" reserves - deposits in the ground that cannot be used because of carbon emissions limitations - would have no impact on balance sheets.

The CI-GNL (Ivory Coast LNG) consortium led by Total has been awarded the rights to build and operate a liquefied natural gas re-gasification terminal in the Ivory Coast with a capacity of 3 mtpa. The decision was followed by the signature of the shareholders’ agreement in Abidjan between Total, which will operate the project with a 34% interest, PetroCI (11%), CI Energies (5%), SOCAR (26%), Shell (13%), Golar (6%) and Endeavor Energy (5%).

Oil prices were slightly higher on Thursday ahead of next week's meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to discuss implementation of its proposed cap on production. Brent crude futures LCOc1 were up 12 cents at $49.07 a barrel at 1501 GMT (10:01 a.m. ET). U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 rose 9 cents to $48.05.

As the oil market anxiously awaits OPEC’s decision next week, some of the countries hardest hit by the biggest price crash in a generation may have found a lifeline outside of the group. India is the world’s fastest growing crude consumer whose appetite for fossil fuels is forecast to surge in the next two decades. The country is set to decide next month on whether to advance $15 billion to Nigeria for future supplies.

Corrosion on a North Sea oil platform caused an incident in which a man was injured, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has said.

OPEC will debate an oil output cut of 4.0-4.5 percent for all of its members except Libya and Nigeria next week but the deal's success hinges on an agreement from Iraq and Iran, which are far from certain to give full backing. Three OPEC sources told Reuters a gathering of experts from the oil producer group in Vienna had decided on Tuesday to recommend that a ministerial meeting on Nov. 30 debate a proposal from member Algeria to reduce output by that amount.

Statoil reported a fire on the Scarabeo 5 drilling rig in the Njord field in the Norwegian Sea. As of 20:30, Statoil said that there are no longer visible flames or smoke at the site of the fire on board Scarabeo 5, and the situation is under control. Work is under way to achieve final clarification and normalization.

Lundin Petroleum announce that its subsidiary, Lundin Norway AS (Lundin Norway), has completed the Neiden exploration well 7220/6-2R as an oil and gas discovery. The well is located in Block PL609, approximately 60 km northeast of the Alta discovery on the Loppa High, in the southern Barents Sea. The main targets of the exploration well were to prove oil in Triassic sandstone and Permian carbonate reservoirs. The well encountered gross 31 m hydrocarbon column (gross), with 21 m of oil and 10 m of natural gas in the Permian target. The total gross resource estimate for the Neiden discovery is between 25-60 MMboe.

Farstad Shipping has announced that it has been awarded four vessel charter contracts from Petrobras, Shell and Saipem. Petrobras has extended the contract for the MPSV Far Swift with another year in direct continuation with present contract, until October 2017. The vessel will continue to deliver air diving and ROV services in cooperation with Fugro Brasil , on the Brazilian continental shelf.

Offshore accommodation and workspace solutions specialist HB Rentals has secured contracts in excess of £1,000,000 for the manufacture of workshops, local equipment rooms and pressurized offshore service modules for multiple clients. The company was commissioned by Prosafe to design, manufacture and supply two DNV 2.7-1 and 2.7-2, Safe Area certified welding workshops for the Safe Zephyrus semisubmersible accommodation vessel, operating offshore Norway.

Italy's biggest gas distributor Italgas does not believe the country's referendum on constitutional reform in December will affect new rules to streamline gas distribution, its chief executive said on Monday. "I don't think it will have an affect because under the new rules the regions stand to benefit from increased investments and better technology," Paolo Gallo told Reuters.

OPEC is on course to finalize the details of the Algiers accord to cut oil production at a meeting in Vienna on Tuesday, said a delegate from Nigeria. "There is certainty that everybody is on board,” Ibrahim Waya told reporters on his way into a meeting at the secretariat of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. “Everyone knows that the stakes are high."

Total and SOCAR, the national oil company of Azerbaijan, have signed an agreement establishing the contractual and commercial terms for the first phase of production from Absheron gas and condensate field. The field, which lies in the Caspian Sea, was discovered by Total in 2011.

Drilling rig Scarabeo 5 reported a fire in an engine room. There were 106 personnel on board, all have been accounted for and no-one has been reported missing. Fire extinguishing has been carried out on the rig, which is located at Njord field in the Norwegian Sea.

The Transocean Winner could not have been prevented from running aground, MPs have been told. Westminster's transport committee has been taking evidence of the grounding of the rig on Lewis in a storm.

Brazilian state-controlled oil company Petróleo Brasileiro SA could receive up to 5.5 billion reais ($1.6 billion) back as a result of an ongoing corruption probe, Chief Executive Officer Pedro Parente said on Friday.

Rowan Companies and Saudi Aramco have signed, through their subsidiaries, an agreement to create a 50/50 joint venture (JV) to own, operate, and manage offshore drilling rigs in Saudi Arabia. The new JV company will use Rowan's established business in Saudi Arabia as its base with a scope of operations covering Saudi Arabia's existing and future offshore oil and gas fields. The new company is anticipated to commence operations in the second quarter of 2017.

In a troubled oil world, the Permian Basin is the gift that keeps on giving. One portion of the giant field, known as the Wolfcamp formation, was found to hold 20 billion barrels of oil trapped in four layers of shale beneath West Texas. That’s almost three times larger than North Dakota’s Bakken play and the single largest U.S. unconventional crude accumulation ever assessed, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. At current prices, that oil is worth almost $900 billion.

Kuwait renewed a contract to supply Egypt with crude oil for the next three years, according to a senior Kuwaiti government official, who said the shipments are not intended to make up for the loss of Saudi fuel shipments to the North African country. Egypt will get 2 MMbbl of Kuwaiti crude per month starting Jan. 1, according to the official, who asked not to be identified because the contract wasn’t announced publicly. The contract is for three years and the supplies will be based on international prices, he said.

The UK transport minister has pledged to ensure foreign sailors working in the North Sea are paid the minimum wage. John Hayes said he is "committed" to reviewing legislation which makes it legal to employ crew on less than £6.70 an hour if they are recruited overseas.

Nigeria reached a $5.1-billion settlement to reimburse foreign oil companies, including Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc for past operating costs. The amount, less than the $6.8 billion previously discussed, will be settled through crude-oil sales over five years and will be interest free, Petroleum Minister Emmanuel Kachikwu told reporters in the capital, Abuja, Thursday.

The U.S. is set to export a record number of cargoes of shale gas this month. Nine liquefied natural gas tankers have departed or are scheduled to leave Cheniere Energy Inc.’s Sabine Pass terminal in November, the most since exports began in February, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg and Genscape Inc. That may increase as more declare their destinations.

U.S. shale oil producers will increase their output if oil prices hit $60 a barrel, meaning OPEC will have to walk a fine line if it curtails production to prop up prices, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) said. OPEC members are due to meet in Vienna at the end of the month to push through the first output limiting deal since 2008.

380 Jobs at risk as Shell plans to close Glasgow operation. Around 380 jobs are at risk after Royal Dutch Shell said it intends to shut down its Glasgow operation in response to the low oil price.

Oslo-listed Subsea 7 has lifted its profit in the third quarter ended September 30, 2016, on high utilisation of its active fleet, combined with previously announced cost cuts and more favorable tax rate, compared to the prior-year quarter. Despite revenue drop of 23 percent compared to Q3 2015, the mentioned more favorable tax rate in this year’s third quarter pushed the company’s bottom line up by close to 3 percent.

As oil majors are considering exiting Norway, the government is warning them that they could still be on the hook for billion of dollars in costs to close down dried up oilfields if they aren’t careful to whom they sell. For each future transaction, Norway’s Petroleum and Energy Ministry will assess whether to make companies liable for the close down costs of assets held by their former subsidiaries should their new owners not be able to handle the expenses, it said in a Nov. 8 letter to oil companies sent to the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association, which was obtained by Bloomberg.

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said on Tuesday that $200 billion investment is required to develop the country's oil industry. "Internal resources are not enough to meet such need, therefore we should attract foreign investment", Zanganeh said in a press conference. IPC (the Integrated Petroleum Contract), the new model of Iran's oil contracts, has been drawn up to materialize this objective, the minister noted.

Singapore’s Vallianz Holdings has announced a handy $3m profit for the third quarter of 2016, the same day that crew stranded onboard three vessels managed by the company tell reporters they’ve run out of food and water while anchored off Dubai. The crew onboard Swiber Explorer, Swiber Navigator and Swiber Sandefjord have all been on the vessels for almost nine months despite having only signed three-month contracts with Vallianz Offshore Marine.

The contract covers the provision of slickline services, coiled tubing services, well surveillance, ballistic and wireline tractor services to support Maersk Oil’s Central North Sea operations and planned abandonment campaigns. It is this spread and scale of disciplines that enable ALTUS to deliver an integrated multi-service offering that optimises operational efficiency in the most cost-efficient way.

Construction on the $3.8-billion line is nearly complete in North Dakota, where the pipeline giant is waiting for an easement from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to drill a final segment beneath Lake Oahe, company officials said on a call with analysts. Once it receives the easement, Energy Transfer can begin a three-to-four month drilling program and draw the remaining $1.4 billion from a $2.5-billion credit facility that’s financing the project.

Libya’s largest oil export terminal may re-open as early as next week in a move that would provide relief for the cash-strapped country holding Africa’s largest crude reserves. Tankers may be able to load at Es Sider port by next week as maintenance work at the terminal is almost complete, a National Oil Corp. official said by phone on Tuesday, asking not to be identified because he’s not authorized to speak with news media. Es Sider hasn’t exported crude since force majeure, a legal status protecting a party from liability if it can’t fulfill a contract for reasons beyond its control, was declared on loadings almost two years ago.

Singapore-listed commodities trader Noble Group Ltd. (N21.SG) on Thursday said it swung to a net loss in the third quarter as a steep fall in revenue hurt its operating income. Net loss in the three months ended Sept. 30 was $28.1 million, compared with a profit of $24.7 million in the same quarter last year, the company said in a statement to the Singapore Exchange. Revenue fell 38% from a year ago to $11.55 billion.

Sunoco Logistics Partners ( SXL.N ) said on Wednesday it is forming a joint venture with Exxon Mobil ( XOM.N ), giving the midstream company strategic assets near the Dakota Access line while expanding its West Texas footprint for the second time in less than two months. The joint venture, called Permian Express Partners, will consist of assets owned by both companies, according to a statement. Sunoco Logistics will take a stake of 85 percent, while Exxon will control the remaining 15 percent.

Foreign sailors working in Scotland's oil industry are being paid as little as £2 an hour, it has been claimed. The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) says at times more than half of the non-UK vessels in the North Sea employ crew on less than the minimum wage of £6.70 an hour.

The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), comprising 10 of the largest energy companies in the world, has announced an investment of $1bn over the next ten years, to develop and accelerate the commercial deployment of innovative low emissions technologies. OGCI Climate Investments (OGCI CI) will aim to deploy successfully-developed new technologies among member companies and beyond. It will also identify ways to cut the energy intensity of both transport and industry. Working in partnership with like-minded initiatives across all stakeholder groups and sectors, the OGCI CI says it believes its emission reduction impact can be multiplied across industries.

Russia, the world’s biggest energy producer, is “on board” with an OPEC agreement to limit crude oil production to help re-balance the market , according to OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo. OPEC producers remain committed to an agreement reached last month in Algiers to trim output, and cooperation from non-OPEC producers will help bring the oil market back into balance, Barkindo told reporters at an energy conference in Abu Dhabi. Russia is due to join OPEC for talks later this month in Vienna, where OPEC will convene for its bi-annual meeting.

The forward curve for U.S. crude oil futures has steepened in recent days as worries that proposed OPEC supply cuts won't hold, or even materialize, turned the market's outlook for 2017 deliveries more bearish relative to longer-term contracts. With the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries dragging out negotiating the terms of a production cap, traders are now betting that a supply glut that has depressed crude prices this year will take longer to alleviate than previously anticipated, due to disagreements among OPEC members.

BP has advised that a decision is 'sort of imminent' on phase two of it's Mad Dog project in the Gulf of Mexico. Phase one has been in production off Louisiana for more than a decade, but in 2009 further discoveries were made in the southern section of the same field.

Dong recently announced it was no longer looking at oil and gas as a long-term strategic commitment, now Danish energy giant Dong Energy has confirmed it will exit the oil and gas market to focus on the renewables sector. The organisation has stated that its strategic future lied with the development of a clean energy portfolio based on establishing Dong as the market leader in offshore wind, bioenergy and green distribution.

After the worst week for oil since January, crude prices firmed up on Monday ahead of Tuesday’s historic election. Oil dropped 10 percent last week, in large part due to lowering expectations that OPEC could succeed in working out a production cut at the end of the month and also because the EIA reported a record high build up in oil inventories. Oil dropped below $45 per barrel, hitting nearly two-month lows. Of course, the elephant in the room is the U.S. presidential election. While not directly related to oil prices, the financial markets have been reacting in dramatic fashion to recent movements in the polls. And as Bloomberg reports, they have a clear preference for who they want to win: Hillary Clinton. The former Secretary of State is seen as a known quantity, while Donald Trump as a wildcard. When Trump moved up in the polls global stock markets dipped, and the markets gained as Clinton’s fortunes improved. The dynamic played out again on Monday when the FBI cleared C...

The boss of French oil and gas company Total said on Monday that it would be happy to be the first Western oil company to reach an agreement with Iran, but he said a deal had not yet been signed. "Discussions are going on and we'll see if we can sign in the coming days," Patrick Pouyanne told CNN Money on the sidelines of an Abu Dhabi petroleum conference. Asked about the estimated $6 billion value of the potential deal, Pouyanne said: "...developing a phase of South Pars (gas field) is more in the range of $2 billion dollars than $6 billion." Iran's SHANA news agency said on Monday that Total and China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) would sign new contracts on Tuesday with National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) on the second phase of the South Pars gas field. Total has had a previous involvement in South Pars, one of the largest natural gas deposits in the world, which is located in the middle of the Persian Gulf. In 1997, Iranian authorities awarde...

The global gas output is expected to increase from current 9.91 billion cubic meters per day (bcm/d) to about 16.7 bcm/d by 2040, Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, OPEC Secretary General said on November 7. Looking to the future, the 2016 World Oil Outlook sees global oil demand increasing from around 93 million barrels a day in 2015 to over 109 million barrels a day by 2040, Barkindo said during the 2016 Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, OPEC’s official website reported. “Estimated oil-related investment requirements are close to $10 trillion in the period to 2040. And from the perspective of gas, the number is around $6 trillion”. He added that oil and gas are still expected to contribute 53 percent to the global energy mix by 2040. “At the global level, however, the situation that has evolved over the past two years or so, is putting this future at risk given the dramatic drop off in investments. Global oil and gas exploration and production s...

French oil giant Total is expected to sign a deal on Tuesday with Iran to develop the country's largest natural gas field, paving the way for Western oil firms' return to the Persian Gulf country. Total would be the first European integrated oil company to sign a contract to develop Iranian oil or gas assets following the lifting of sanctions on Tehran earlier this year. The deal would also advance Iran's goal of tapping its vast oil and natural gas reserves, which are the fourth and second largest in the world, respectively Total will lead a consortium that includes the China National Petroleum Corporation and Iran's Petropars to develop the South Pars field in the Persian Gulf, the AFP reported, citing the Iranian oil ministry. The deal is worth $6 billion and needs to be finalized within six months, the source told the AFP Total and other European energy giants began pulling out of Iran in 2008 as the international community ratcheted up sanctions on Ira...

Saudi Arabian Oil Co. halted shipments of oil products to Egypt indefinitely, Egyptian Oil Minister Tarek El-Molla said, forcing the Arab world’s most populous nation to buy fuels on world markets at higher cost. The state producer known as Saudi Aramco informed the Egyptian General Petroleum Corp. in early October that it would suspend supplies of refined oil products, leaving Egypt little choice but to resort to tenders for meeting local demand. It wasn’t clear at the time if the freeze was only for October. Aramco had agreed earlier this year to provide Egypt with 700,000 metric tons of refined products each month for five years in an arrangement valued at about $23 billion. Egypt, which relies on imports to meet its energy needs, faces higher costs or gasoline and other oil products after the government decided on Thursday to allow its currency to trade freely as a step toward stabilizing an economy weakened by a dollar shortage. El-Molla, Oil  Egyptian oil minister, c...