Saudi state energy giant, Aramco, plans to foray into international oil and gas exploration in future, which may put the company into competition with Exxon Mobil (XOM) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDS).Its top agenda is to build a global natural gas business. Other considerations include investments in LNG projects in the Russian Arctic and the U.S., as well as opportunities in Australia, which recently topped Qatar as the world's top exporter of LNG. Aramco has already made investments in overseas refineries and petrochemicals plants.

BP has invested more money in Egypt in the last two years than anywhere else, the oil giant's Chief Executive Bob Dudley told CNBC. Read More...

Chevron Corporation’s latest fourth quarter earnings report beat estimates as the company saw a 20% rise in EPS to $1.95, though quarterly revenue fell short of estimates -- $42.35 billion versus an estimated $46.13 billion. The company’s net oil-equivalent production also grew more than 7% in 2018 to a record 2.93 million barrels per day. Total earnings for 2018’s fourth quarter, including $2.02 billion in tax benefits related to U.S. tax reform, stood at $3.7 billion ($1.95 per share – diluted) compared to $3.1 billion ($1.64 per share – diluted) in the fourth quarter of 2017. Sales and other operating revenues for the fourth quarter 2018 stood at $40 billion, compared to $36 billion in the year-ago period. According to several analysts, the company has focused on a clear strategy to attract investors.For example, the company has resumed its share buyback program with sufficient cash and cash equivalents at its disposal - a planned rate of ~$3 billion annually for the f

The volatility that rocked oil prices last quarter may have moderated, but Citi's global head of commodities research says the market's "nightmare" is not over yet. Read More...

Shares of the world’s largest publicly traded oil and gas company, Exxon Mobil, rose more than 3% on Monday to touch the $76 mark. Exxon’s latest quarterly earnings report revealed that the company reported a forecast-beating performance in the fourth quarter. Quarterly profit excluding the impacts of U.S. tax changes rose to $6.41 billion, registering a 72% increase from the same period a year ago. However, quarterly profit including the tax impacts fell by 28% compared to the same quarter a year ago to $6 billion.Nevertheless, the equivalent earnings per share of $1.41 beat forecasts of $1.08 per share. But revenue couldn’t match forecasts and came-in at $71.89 billion, although the company showed a small increase in fossil fuel production.

It "infuriates" CNBC's Jim Cramer to watch hedge funds take control of the stock market by making decisions based on a single variable: the price of oil. Read More...

Shale oil's impact will have "huge implications" for global energy markets for many years, Fatih Birol, executive director at the International Energy Agency, told CNBC on Tuesday.Read More...

The 14 nation OPEC began its first round of oil supply cuts in December, as oil supplies plunged by 751,000 barrels per day to nearly 31.6 million bpd. In early December OPEC members signed an agreement with Russia and nine other nations to keep 1.2 million barrels per day off the market starting in January.On the other hand, Iraq, OPEC's second largest producer, witnessed the biggest jump in production in the final month of the year as its output rose 88,000 bpd to just over 4.7 million bpd. At the current level, Baghdad would need to cut about 200,000 bpd in January to meet its quota under the supply cut agreement.  

America’s journey to preeminence in the global oil trade is about to hit another milestone. Propelled by the shale-oil boom, the U.S. is already producing more crude than either Russia or Saudi Arabia, who until recently vied for the top spot.Read More...

Chevron, the U.S-based energy company, has temporarily halted the third liquefaction train at its Gorgon LNG plant on Barrow Island in Western Australia, apparently due to some mechanical issue.In fact, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, the past ten days have shown a record temperature in Australia. Reuters also believes that this temporary shutdown will benefit Asian LNG prices that have been experiencing the lowest phase in the past two years due to mild winter in East Asia. Currently, Gorgon is one of the world’s largest natural gas projects, with a capacity to produce 15.6 million metric tons/year of LNG from its three trains. 

At the Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo revealed his hope that 2019 will deliver a more balanced oil market. However, he also voiced his concern that the lingering trade dispute between the U.S and China -- two of the largest sources of energy demand -- may significantly affect international trade by disrupting growth prospects in major Asian markets. Outside of the U.S, India and China are the brightest spots in terms of demand for energy.

Oil prices fell about 2 percent on Friday amid worries about a global economic slowdown, but futures ended the week higher, keeping some gains from a week-long rally spurred by U.S.-China trade hopes. Read More...

But analysts expect the rise to be just temporary, amidst lingering concerns over a demand-supply imbalance. Driven by healthy demand and a suitable equilibrium, oil prices rose consistently from January to October 2018.After reaching a four-year high of $86.74 per barrel in early October, oil prices dropped continuously. After dropping nearly 25% in 2018, U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures ended the year at $45.55 a barrel.

American multinational oil giant, Exxon Mobil Corporation, on Thursday announced that the company has withdrawn its environmental assessment application for a $25-billion West Coast Canada LNG export facility. Exxon's exit from the West Coast LNG export industry, which at one time attracted more than 20 proposals, would mean apparent shelving of the WCC LNG project. The WCC LNG export project, located in British Columbia, was expected to produce ~15 million tons/year of LNG to serve Asian buyers, with plans to enhance production as much as 30 million tons/year. Exxon's decision to exit from the project, according to analysts, indicates that the company plans to enhance its focus on LNG projects with Qatar Petroleum and a proposed expansion of its chilled-gas operation in Papua New Guinea.

Royal Dutch Shell, one of the six oil and gas "super-majors," has finally sets it foot in the Japan’s electricity market, which is considered one of the world’s richest electricity markets. RDS is the second-largest energy firm by market capitalization.He further added that the move was in-line with company strategy, as it sees opportunities to balance the grid when there are supply-demand mismatches driven by intermittent wind and solar power. Japan, which meets nearly 15% of its electricity requirement from renewable sources, saw its power sales hover around 14 trillion yen ($125 billion) in 2017.

In an effort to stem the fall in oil prices, OPEC members are set to release a table detailing the voluntary supply cut quotas among its members and allies. As the influential oil cartel steps up its efforts to put a halt to one of the biggest oil price falls in years, OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo on Thursday said that to reach the proposed cut of 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd), the effective reduction for member countries would need to be 3.02% instead of 2.5% which was decided earlier this month. Concerns over an economic slowdown, demand and supply imbalance, reports of swelling inventories and forecasts of record U.S. and Russian output have all negatively influenced the oil prices in recent times.The above factors resulted into the oil prices crashing down by more than a third after reaching its four-year highs in early October. Despite production cutback efforts by OPEC members, the slide continued for oil prices and International benchmark Brent crude traded

The British multinational oil and gas company, BP Plc on Wednesday launched the sale of its U.S. oil and gas onshore assets to help pay for other U.S. based fields it bought from the BHP Group (BHP) in October. Expected to fetch more than $3 billion, the sale proceeds according to the company, would be utilized to partially fund the $10.5 billion acquisition of BHP’s onshore assets that are mostly around oil-producing fields in Texas and Louisiana.BP, post this acquisition deal, announced that it would finance the deal by selling assets worth $5 billion to $6 billion. London-listed BP justified this move by saying that this move is in line with the company’s strategy to focus on enhancing its production from its holdings in the Permian and Eagle Ford basins to match rivals Exxon Mobil (XOM) and Chevron (CVX) whose recent investment in the basin is expected to increase their production sharply in the coming years. Rebranded as BPX, BP’s onshore business, had sent out information pa

Falling for a third straight session, U.S. crude oil prices settled at their lowest since early October 2017 after dropping more than 1% last Tuesday.U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures tumbled to $49.27 per barrel, dropping by 60 cents or 1.2%. Both U.S. crude and Brent have dropped more than 30% since early October amid swelling global inventories, with WTI currently trading at or below $50 levels not seen since October 2017. Some of the biggest names of the U.S. oil industry are feeling the sting, as reflected in stock prices. 

Oil prices have fallen more than 20% in the past couple of months, but it appeared that dividend-seeking investors preferred integrated oil giant ExxonMobil over ConocoPhillips. Why? There may be a few reasons.Oil is a key input on the chemical and refining side, meaning low oil prices are a benefit to this piece of Exxon's operation. Second, it’s true that oil prices dictate the top and bottom lines for Exxon.

Following two days of grueling negotiations, OPEC members and its close allies have finally reached a deal to cut oil production, going against President Donald Trump and helping to boost market sentiment. Following the news of the deal, crude oil futures surged more than 5%, putting an end to oil's continuous losing streak.WTI gained +4.9% to $54.03/bbl, while Brent crude gained +5.2% to $63.19/bbl. The alliance has confirmed to remove 1.2 million barrels per day from the market, in-line with expectations of 1 million to 1.4 million bpd.