Category Archives: Oil

Exxon plan for Guyana oil exploration risks raising tensions with Venezuela

Posted on by

President of ExxonMobil Guyana confirms plan to drill two new wells off Atlantic coast as territorial dispute simmers

ExxonMobil has insisted it will explore for oil in a region bitterly contested by Guyana and Venezuela, despite the dangers that the move is likely to escalate tensions between the two South American neighbors.

Relations between the two countries have reached an all-time low in recent months following a series of announcements by the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, suggesting that he could take the Essequibo region by force.

Continue reading...

Saudi Arabia surprises oil markets by ditching plan to increase production

Posted on by

Blow to Joe Biden, who had hoped to benefit from lower pump prices in an election year

Saudi Arabia has cast doubt on the future of the global oil market after abandoning plans to grow its crude production capacity by 1m barrels a day.

The world’s biggest exporter signalled a big change in policy by ordering the state oil company, Saudi Aramco, to drop plans to expand its maximum production capacity to 13m barrels a day by 2027.

Continue reading...

Alok Sharma condemns government’s oil and gas bill as vote passes first hurdle

Posted on by

Former Cop26 president abstains from vote saying bill breaks UK’s promise to phase out fossil fuels

Alok Sharma has said the government’s oil and gas bill going through the Commons will not cut household energy costs or create jobs and instead will break the UK’s promise to phase out fossil fuels.

The government’s offshore petroleum licensing bill passed its second reading on Monday night with 293 votes to 211 against. No Conservative MPs voted against it, and Sharma – the former business secretary who served as president of the Cop26 climate talks – abstained. The legislation would place the North Sea Transition Authority under a duty to run annual applications for new offshore oil and gas licences.

Continue reading...

Women added to Cop29 climate summit committee after backlash

Posted on by

Panel was originally composed of 28 men, a move condemned as ‘regressive’ and ‘shocking’

The president of Azerbaijan has added 12 women to the previously all-male organising committee for the Cop29 global climate summit, which the country will host in December.

The move follows a backlash after the Guardian reported the initial 28-man composition of the committee, which was called “regressive” by the She Changes Climate campaign group. “Climate change affects the whole world, not half of it,” the group said.

Continue reading...

Oil prices hit $80 a barrel as fears grow over Red Sea disruption to trade

Posted on by

Experts warn of economic impact of sustained shipping attacks and Middle East tensions

Oil prices have hit $80 (£62.83) as fears grew about the economic impact of disruption to international trade through the Red Sea and escalating tensions in the Middle East.

Raising concerns about a possible inflation shock for the world economy, Brent crude prices jumped by about 4% to a high of $80.75 a barrel on Friday, while US West Texas Intermediate crude also increased after US and UK airstrikes against Houthi rebel sites in Yemen.

Continue reading...

Oil prices rise after Iran rejects calls to end support for Houthi Red Sea attacks

Posted on by

Brent crude is up 2% to $78.77 a barrel as hopes of strong demand in China also push up prices

Oil prices have risen sharply after Iran rejected calls to end support for attacks by Houthi rebels on vessels in the Red Sea and sent a warship to the key trading route.

In the first trading session of the new year, Brent crude rose $1.73, or more than 2%, to $78.77 a barrel on Tuesday, while US West Texas Intermediate crude was at $73.36 a barrel, up $1.71, or 2.4%.

Continue reading...

Data reveals most expensive Australian capital to buy petrol – and the cheapest

Posted on by

Drivers in Brisbane bear brunt of record petrol prices this year – ‘only now are we starting to see some relief’

Australian motorists are copping the cost of volatile world oil prices but relief could be in sight.

Drivers in Brisbane bore the brunt of record petrol prices this year, making the Queensland city the nation’s most expensive capital to put fuel in the tank. Regular unleaded cost on average 193.4 cents a litre, an NRMA analysis of 2023 petrol prices across the country revealed.

Continue reading...

Queensland to ban new oil and gas drilling in Lake Eyre basin rivers and floodplains

Posted on by

Steven Miles has delivered on two of the environment movement’s most pressing concerns within a week of being sworn-in as premier

The Queensland government will ban new oil and gas developments in the Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre basin’s rivers and floodplains – belatedly delivering on a nine-year-old election commitment to reinstate protections for the state’s pristine channel country.

The state’s premier, Steven Miles, will on Friday announce new environmental regulations for the basin, which is among the world’s last unaltered river systems.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Ikea warns Red Sea attacks could disrupt supplies and deliveries

Posted on by

Firm says it is weighing up options to secure product availability amid Yemeni rebel attacks on shipping

Ikea has warned that the disruption to global trade caused by Yemeni rebel attacks in the Red Sea could delay its deliveries and affect availability of some products.

The world’s largest furniture company said it was “evaluating other supply options to secure the availability of our products” after many big shipping companies stopped sending vessels through the Suez canal in response to the attacks by Houthi militants’ protests against the Israel-Gaza war.

Continue reading...

More than 100 container ships rerouted from Suez canal to avoid Houthi attacks

Posted on by

Cape of Good Hope diversion adds 6,000 nautical miles and three or four weeks to delivery times and has driven up oil prices

More than 100 container ships have been rerouted around southern Africa to avoid the Suez canal, in a sign of the disruption to global trade caused by Houthi rebels attacking vessels on the western coast of Yemen.

The shipping company Kuehne and Nagel said it had identified 103 ships that had already changed course, with more expected to go around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.

Continue reading...

BP halts oil and gas shipments through Red Sea after rebel attacks

Posted on by

Energy company follows decisions by five big shipping firms as Houthi militants step up attacks on vessels

BP has halted all shipments of oil and gas through the Red Sea after an increase in the number of attacks on cargo ships by Houthi militants in Yemen, including a strike on a Norwegian-owned vessel.

The British oil company said on Tuesday that it had paused shipping in the region indefinitely, citing a “deteriorating security situation” amid tensions in the Middle East.

Continue reading...

Cambridge University reportedly could drop Barclays in favour of greener bank

Posted on by

UK lender is a major European funder of oil and gas projects and university has said it does not want to back fossil fuel expansion

Cambridge University could cut ties with Barclays after more than 200 years over the bank’s refusal to stop financing new oil and gas projects, according to the Financial Times.

It reported that Cambridge is looking for an institution with robust climate policies to manage “several hundred million pounds” in cash and money market funds – a mandate expected to cover more than £200m in assets and generate about £10m in fees a year.

Continue reading...

Cop28 president says his firm will keep investing in oil

Posted on by

Exclusive: Sultan Al Jaber says Adnoc has to meet demand for fossil fuels, and hails ‘unprecedented’ Cop deal

The president of the Cop28 climate summit will continue with his oil company’s record investment in oil and gas production, despite coordinating a global deal to “transition away” from fossil fuels.

Sultan Al Jaber, who is also the chief executive of the United Arab Emirates’ national oil and gas company, Adnoc, told the Guardian the company had to satisfy demand for fossil fuels.

Continue reading...

Revealed: Saudi Arabia’s grand plan to ‘hook’ poor countries on oil

Posted on by

Climate scientists say fossil fuel use needs to fall rapidly – but oil-rich kingdom is working to drive up demand

Saudi Arabia is driving a huge global investment plan to create demand for its oil and gas in developing countries, an undercover investigation has revealed. Critics said the plan was designed to get countries “hooked on its harmful products”.

Little was known about the oil demand sustainability programme (ODSP) but the investigation obtained detailed information on plans to drive up the use of fossil fuel-powered cars, buses and planes in Africa and elsewhere, as rich countries increasingly switch to clean energy.

Continue reading...

Canada oil and gas firms to drill 8% more wells next year as emissions target slips

Posted on by

Producers take advantage of new shipping options, including government-owned Trans Mountain pipeline, to boost exports

Oil and gas producers say they will drill 8% more wells in Canada next year as they look to take advantage of new shipping options, including a controversial government-owned pipeline.

Amid forecasts that Canada is not on target to reach its emissions reductions goals, on Friday the Canadian Association of Energy Contractors (CAOEC) predicted nearly 500 more wells next year, to 6,229 projects.

Continue reading...

Shell to face human rights claims in UK over chronic oil pollution in Niger delta

Posted on by

More than 13,000 Nigerian villagers can bring legal claims against oil firm, rules high court

Thousands of Nigerian villagers can bring human rights claims against the fossil fuel company Shell over the chronic oil pollution of their water sources and destruction of their way of life, the high court in London has ruled.

Mrs Justice May ruled this week that more than 13,000 farmers and fishers from the Ogale and Bille communities in the Niger delta were entitled to bring legal claims against Shell for alleged breaches to their right to a clean environment.

Continue reading...

Greens say CSIRO’s independence must be protected after alleged collaboration with BP

Posted on by

Exclusive: Australian scientific agency rejects ‘ghostwriting’ claims made by US law firm representing victims of Deepwater Horizon oil spill

The Greens have warned that fossil fuel companies must not be allowed to “gag scientists” after lawyers representing victims of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill claimed to have uncovered evidence of the Australian government’s independent science agency collaborating with BP on academic studies.

The Downs Law Group has said documents it received as part of litigation against BP reveal the oil company’s lawyers reviewed and gave corporate approval to nine scientific studies by CSIRO employees, raising questions about the studies’ impartiality.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

“[W]e do not have a revised final with CSIRO authors”

“Planned for December. Approved?”

“Appear to be other papers that CSIRO is drafting and I will need confirmation they are indeed under way so I can track them and make sure they go through the review process”

“CSIRO paper from last year which made it through the review process and was approved”

Continue reading...

Approval of divisive Alaska oil project upheld in blow to US climate goals

Posted on by

Advocates warned of ‘tragic consequences’ should the project in a remote part of northern Alaska go ahead

A federal judge has upheld the Biden administration’s approval of the Willow oil-drilling project in a remote part of northern Alaska in a move that environmental groups warned will have “tragic consequences” for the Arctic.

On Thursday, the US district court judge Sharon Gleason rejected requests by a grassroots Iñupiat group and environmentalists to undo the approval for the project in the federally designated National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

Continue reading...

Oil and gas ‘not the problem’ for climate, says UK’s net zero minister

Posted on by

Campaigners call Graham Stuart’s comments ‘laughable’ and say Conservatives are weaponising climate action

Oil and gas are “not the problem” for the climate, but the carbon emissions arising from them are, the UK’s net zero minister has told MPs.

In words that suggested the UK could place yet more emphasis on technologies to capture and store carbon, Graham Stuart said fossil fuel production was not driving climate change, but demand for fossil fuels was.

Continue reading...

North Sea oil and gas: what is the new licensing scheme, and will it cut bills?

Posted on by

Rishi Sunak signalled changes in the king’s speech that create a policy divide with Labour

The government has confirmed its plans to grant new North Sea oil and gas licences every year at the opening of parliament, deepening a political fault line between the Conservatives and Labour, and angering environmental campaigners who argue it undermines efforts to reach net zero. Here, we examine the move.

Continue reading...