Latin America ///
Márcio Zimmermann has resigned as a Petrobras board member, and has been replaced by newly-elected Luiz Navarro.
Argentina's YPF SA is defying the oil industry trend after crude prices collapsed by keeping last year’s capital budget intact without laying off workers.
Venezuela, plagued with shortages of basic goods, was offered a reprieve by the Prime Minister of neighboring Trinidad & Tobago: exchange oil for tissue paper.
RIO DE JANEIRO (Bloomberg) -- Rolls-Royce Holdings said it will take all necessary action to ensure compliance with the law following allegations it was involvement in bribery and kickbacks at Brazilian oil producer Petrobras.
Chevron has reached a settlement agreement with James Russell DeLeon, the principal funder of the fraudulent lawsuit against Chevron in Ecuador.
HAMILTON, Bermuda – Seadrill, the world's third-biggest offshore driller, has cut $1.1 billion worth of Petrobras orders from its backlog.
Five workers died and four went missing in an explosion on a production vessel at a natural-gas field off Brazil’s coast operated by state-run Petroleo Brasileiro, said Norway’s BW Offshore, the ship’s owner.
Petrobras halted drilling at its largest oil discovery in deep waters, two people with knowledge of the matter said, underscoring the technical challenges facing the company’s new management team.
RIO DE JANEIRO -- Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff is putting her faith in a state bank executive to guide Brazil’s national oil company out of an unprecedented graft scandal.
RIO DE JANEIRO -- Petrobras confirmed Wednesday that its CEO and president Maria das Graças Foster and five directors resigned.
Petrobras’ CEO, Maria das Graças Silva Foster, has been presented with the highest award granted by the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).
HOUSTON -- The oil and gas industry’s leading magazine for upstream technology and activity, World Oil, forecasts a sharp drop in drilling, both in the U.S. and internationally, as a direct result of plunging crude oil prices. In its 89th annual forecast and review, World Oil predicts an average WTI oil price of $55.75/barrel (bbl), while Brent will be $58.80/bbl. A Henry Hub natural gas price of $3.35/MMBtu is expected.
At the end of last year, Petrobras deployed its first wet Christmas tree using cables in the pre-salt area.
PetroRio, the new brand of HRT Participações em Petróleo has announced the signing of a purchase and sale agreement to acquire 80% of the rights and obligations of the concession contracts for the Bijupirá and Salema fields with Shell Brasil and Petrobras holding the remaining 20%.
RIO DE JANEIRO (Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch Shell, the second-largest oil operator in Brazil, is selling a stake in one of its crude-producing projects in the country to HRT Participacoes em Petroleo, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
PAMPA MELCHORITA, Peru -- GE Oil & Gas has been awarded a long-term contractual service agreement through General Electric International Peru to support the PERU LNG S.R.L liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in Pampa Melchorita, Peru, approximately 100 mi south of Lima. The facility is South America’s LNG production plant.
RIO DE JANEIRO -- Petrobras now operates more floating production platforms (including self-owned and chartered ones) than any other company in the world, according to Petrodata, a consulting firm that specializes in providing information about the global oil industry.
PARIS (Bloomberg) -- Non-OPEC oil producers will increase output this year at a slower rate than previously forecast, aiding a recovery in crude prices, the International Energy Agency said. The adviser lowered its non-OPEC supply growth estimate by 350,000 bopd, the first cut since the 2015 forecast was introduced in July. Half the cut is from Colombian output while effects on U.S. production are so far “marginal,” it said. The slow-down in non-OPEC output will lead to a “rebalancing” of currently over-supplied global markets in the second half, reviving prices, the agency said.
RIO DE JANERIO -- Petrobras has saved around $1 billion in cost reductions, design optimization and productivity gains since it launched its well cost reduction program in 2013.
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- In the third quarter of 2014, Petrobras surpassed Exxon Mobil’s oil production, and is now the largest producer of liquid hydrocarbons among its publicly traded peers. Considering oil and natural gas, the company is now fourth in the ranking.