Chinese customs data shows that Chinese buyers have ramped up imports over the last month, bringing in 10.5 mbpd of crude, up 8% month-on-month. With teapot refiners still constrained by unavailable import quotas, state-owned companies did most of the buying, OilPrice reported.
Saudi Arabia’s drastic cuts to its October 2021 OSPs have sparked fears of a potential slower-than-anticipated demand recovery in Asia as OPEC+ continues to gradually bring part of its idled production back online. Whilst US outages are still hindering crude production in the Gulf of Mexico, the supply constraints appear to be insufficient to stop oil prices from sliding, albeit marginally. As of Tuesday, global benchmark Brent traded below $72 per barrel, whilst WTI was changing hands around $68.5 per barrel.
US major Chevron is reportedly trying to sell its oil and gas assets in Texas’ Eagle Ford Basin, a legacy of its taking over Noble Energy last year, foreseeing a selling price as high as $3.8 billion. Next Brazil auction sparks surprisingly low interest. The forthcoming concession model licensing round of Brazilian oil regulator ANP has seen only 9 companies qualifying for the bidding, the lowest number ever, though the list contains oil majors like ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, and TotalEnergies.
Mexico seeks to repay PEMEX debt with international money. Mexican president Lopez Obrador claimed Mexico would try to use funds provided by the International Monetary Fund – namely, a $12 billion allocation of SDRs – to repay the national oil company PEMEX’s staggering $115 billion debt.
Saudi trading arm to market Guyana crude. ATL, the London-based trading arm of Saudi Aramco, has been selected by the Guyanese government to market its upcoming crude entitlement, bidding $0.025 per barrel as its proposed commission, potentially indicating the prospective winner of the country’s long-term marketing tender.
ADNOC sells 7.5% of its drilling unit. The UAE national oil company ADNOC stated it would float 7.5% of its drilling subsidiary ADNOC drilling at its second-ever IPO in October, following up on a 2018 listing that saw 5% going towards Baker Hughes for $550 million.
TotalEnergies clinches Iraq $27 billion megacontract. French oil major TotalEnergies signed a monster deal with Iraq that would see it build several seawater injection facilities at southern oil fields, a $2 billion gas processing plant to curb Iraq’s dependence on Iranian gas imports as well as a solar plant.
Norwegian sovereign wealth fund bans India’s ONGC. Norway’s sovereign wealth fund excluded India’s state-run upstream firm ONGC from its investment list over concerns that the company might be breaching human rights in South Sudan, having stakes in two projects where it sides with Chinese firms, OilPrice said.