16th May 2025

🛢️📰 Strathcona going hostile…Offshore wind like dotcom bubble…Kuwait’s going big…US Iran deal getting closer…and barrels more 📰🛢️

📈 THE NUMBERS

A surprise increase in US crude inventories and a prospect of a US Iran deal have put downwards pressure on oil prices in the latter half of this week.

🗞️ WELL-HEADLINES

 🗽 North America

• Strathcona makes attempt at $4.25bn hostile takeover of rival MEG

• Strathcona sells Montney assets for $2.8bn in three separate assets. Busy day for those guys.

• Aramco announces 34 energy investments into the US, including into refining and LNG

• Crude stocks unexpectedly climb by 3.5 mmbbls last week

🏰 Europe

• More environmentalists line up baseless lawsuits against Shell. Yawn.

🕌 The Middle East

• Kuwait plans $50bn of investment over the next 5 years to boost oil production capacity to over 3 mmb/d from ~2.5 mmb/ today

• Total awards $1.6bn Iraq contract to Chinese firm CPECC

• UAE plans $440bn on energy investments into the US over the next decade

⛩️ Asia & Oceania

• Chevron contemplating return to Indonesia upstream just 20 months after exiting position

• ADNOC’s XRG acquires major stake in Turkmenistan Block 1 project from Petronas

• Woodside offering $3.5bn of bonds priced between 4.9%-6%

• Sinopec drills China’s deepest shale well at 5300 meters, marking a technical leap

• Valuera takes FID on Wassana redevelopment in Thailand

• Korea’s KNOC joins forces with Conoco in offshore Australia exploration campaign

🦁 Africa

• Africa Oil rebrands as Meren Energy following completion of Prime acquisition

• Libyan oil flows disrupted as fighting intensifies in Tripoli

🗿 Central & South America

• Perenco strikes it lucky at the Onyx well offshore Trinidad & Tobago

• Petrobras set to award $4bn contracts for eight newbuild vessels

🌍 GEOPOLITICS & MACRO

• Trump says US “getting close” to a new nuclear deal with Iran 

• Low expectation for peace talks in Turkey as neither Trump, Putin, nor Zelensky attend

• Goldmans thinks Trump wants $40-50/bbl oil

• Perma-bears at IEA see oil demand growth slowing for the remainder of 2025

💨 CARBON, CLIMATE, & OTHER ENERGY STUFF

• Offshore wind like the dotcom bubble, says former NATO chief

• Spanish government points to three substation failures as source of blackout, but without specifying cause.

• Eni in talks with Ares to sell a 20% stake in its low carbon energy business Plenitude valued at ~$13.4bn 

• Vistra acquires US gas generation facilities for $1.9bn from Lotus

• INEOS launches first Europe built CO2 carrier vessel for CCS, called Carbon Destroyer 1

🛢️ BOTTOM OF THE BARREL

👋 BEFORE YOU GO

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

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