12th May 2025

Morning all. Trust you had a top weekend. Let’s get into it:

📰🛢️ Crude pops on US China deal…Aramco’s dividends take a battering…Putin offers peace talks…will someone make a move on BP?…and barrels more. 🛢️📰

📈 THE NUMBERS

Finally some better news for oil prices as the US China trade agreement lifts WTI by ~3%.

🗞️ WELL-HEADLINES

 🗽 North America

• USG Survey details 36 tcf of undiscovered gas in two US Gulf Coast formations

• US oil rigs fall by 5 last week to 474, gas rigs unchanged

• Thailand interested in Alaska LNG investment as it seeks to avoid tariffs

• Pembina pipeline sees enough demand for potential expansion to Cedar LNG

• Shell’s new wells at Perdido project in the GoA delayed until year end

🏰 Europe

• Several big oil companies have “run the numbers” on a BP takeover

• High energy prices push chemicals companies to exit Europe

• Owners of damaged NS2 pipeline agree debt restructuring to avoid bankruptcy

• 35% of Spanish gas imports now come from the US

🕌 The Middle East

• Aramco’s dividend falls by $10bn as first quarter profits fall

• Oman considering $8bn sale of Block 6 natural gas assets

• ADNOC Drilling CFO eyes $500m of acquisitions this year

• Contractors vying for deals at Abu Dhabi’s $5bn Rich Gas Development project

⛩️ Asia & Oceania

• Japan’s largest refiner, Eneos, to increase LNG investment and reduce hydrogen

• Total plans return to Indonesia exploration after 7 year absence

🦁 Africa

• Egypt reveals import dependency with 10yr floating LNG import terminal deal

🗿 Central & South America

• Traders disguise Venezuelan crude as Brazilian to avoid US sanctions

• Petrobras revels new oil discovery in the Aram block in the Santos Basin

• Norway’s wealth fund sells Mexico’s Pemex investments citing corruption risk

• Pemex resorts to reopening old wells in a bid to stem production decline

🌍 GEOPOLITICS & MACRO

• US and China reach temporary trade agreement, oil and stock markets pop

• Putin proposes direct peace talks with Ukraine after 3 years of war

• Trump heads to Middle East to bag investments and push for Gaza peace

• Slow progress but talks still alive after latest round of US / Iran negotiations

💨 CARBON, CLIMATE, & OTHER ENERGY STUFF

• CATL, world’s largest battery manufacturer planning Hong Kong IPO

• Iberdrola sells UK smart metering business to Macquarie for £900m

• UK government doubles funding for scheme to support offshore wind

🛢️ BOTTOM OF THE BARREL

👋 BEFORE YOU GO

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Thanks for reading. Have a day out there. 🛢️🛢️

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