News

BP will pay $7 billion to Devon Energy for assets that will extend its reach into Brazil and bulk up its position in the Gulf of Mexico, as the world's top oil companies look to acquisitions to refill depleting reserves.

EXXON Mobil Corp will increase capital spending nearly 4 per cent this year to US$28 billion in part as the largest US oil company seeks to increase its share of the global market for natural gas.

TNK-BP plans to increase oil and gas production by 1-3 percent for the next three years.

Gazprom Neft on Wednesday posted a smaller fourth-quarter profit than analysts had expected, largely because of reasons unrelated to production.

Shell and the Technip-Samsung consortium entered into two separate contracts for the Prelude floating LNG facility.

Russian gas behemoth Gazprom has doubled its gas imports from Azerbaijan to 3 million cubic meters a day as of March 5, the company said Tuesday.

Chevron Corp. will cut 2,000 jobs this year and sell some overseas operations.

Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft will start construction on Thursday of a $1.34 billion pipeline link to help secure crude supplies to a major route feeding energy-hungry China.

Gazprom wants about $135 million from Lithuania to compensate for losses that it says were caused by the country changing a deal on heating prices, a statement from a plant owned by Gazprom said.

RussNeft has obtained a license to explore for and produce hydrocarbons within the limits of the Lusianinskoye oil field in Russia.

Norwegian driller Songa Offshore said its semi-submersible rig Songa Mercur has won a a contract with Gazprom unit Gazflot for exploration work off Sakhalin Island later this year.

Oil giants PetroChina Co and Royal Dutch Shell have made a joint A$3.3 billion ($3 billion) bid to acquire Arrow Energy Ltd, an Australian coal-seam gas developer.

Ukrainian state energy company Naftogaz, often at the centre of energy rows with Russia due to its sketchy ability to pay for gas bills, said today it had preliminary agreement to delay payment of $2.8 billion of debt.

Gasprom is steering the ’steady’ long-term development of the Astrakhan gas complex.

Russian monopoly Gazprom expects liquefied natural gas shipments to compete with rising output of shale gas in the US as the Russian producer aims to expand into the world’s biggest energy market.

BP today outlined plans to further boost efficiency and reduce costs with the aim of improving its annual underlying pre-tax profitability by more than $3 billion over the next two to three years.

Iraq is counting on early rehabilitation work at southern oilfields to yield a 250,000-b/d export increment late this year, stretching its midstream capacity, while Shell and Mitsubishi's heads of agreement deal to discuss gathering and monetising associated gas in the prolific south is near expiry and—according to some sources—off.

TNK-BP said Monday that it was seeking acquisitions after posting a profit in the fourth quarter, following a year-earlier loss.

AK Petroleum PCL, the oil and gas exploration and production company, has signed an agreement to join an offshore exploration license in the Tunisian Republic.

The board of BP has appointed Mr. Ian Davis as a non-executive director of BP p.l.c. with effect from April 2, 2010.