NatWest said it is to stop financing new oil and gas projects immediately, in advance of a previously stated December 2025 end date to funding for existing customers looking for money to expand projects.
Full-year results are due next week and the bank, which is 46% owned by the UK government, is expected to announce a host of climate change battling initiatives laying out how it will half ScopeThree emissions - produced by third parties which it finances - by 2030.
US oil major Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) is reportedly planning to be more aggressive in commodity trading, with a new division aiming to compete with the likes of Glencore and Trafigura.
The division seeks to be active in the high-risk, high-reward world of energy derivatives, according to a report by Bloomberg.
Jay Cheatham, chief executive of Pantheon Resources PLC (AIM:PANR, OTC:PTHRF), is confident that the company’s Alkaid #2 well on Alaska’s North Slope will prove a commercial success, despite several ‘niggles’ faced during the well cleanout process.
Pantheon, the AIM-quoted oil and gas company, announced on Friday that the Nordic Calista #2 rig, contracted for the Alkaid #2 clean-out operation, has successfully pulled the tubing and packer and has now moved off the wellhead.
Diversified Energy Company PLC (LSE:DEC, OTCQX:DECPF) this morning confirmed it has raised US$163mln (£156.4mln) of new equity, after announcing a new US$250mln asset acquisition in a statement after Wednesday’s close.
The deal sees the firm add around 17,000 barrels oil equivalent of production, driving a 20% increase in free cash flow, with the addition of wells and acreage in its ‘Central Region’ area of focus (comprising Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma).
Helium One Global Ltd (AIM:HE1, OTCQB:HLOGF) has announced chief executive David Minchin is stepping down immediately to be replaced by Lorna Blaisse, the group’s principal geologist.
Blaisse has more than 17 years of experience in the exploration and appraisal of oil and gas projects across Africa, Helium One added, with direct knowledge of rift basin geology where its key projects are located.
Kinetiko Energy Ltd (ASX:KKO) has taken another key step in its quest to help feed energy-hungry South Africa through conventional gas and coal bed methane with strong gas results produced from core well 270-06C.
Wireline logging results have established 147 metres of gassy sandstone pay in the vertical profile, being even greater than that reported in the previous Majuba core well, 271-23C, of around 131 metres.
Deltic Energy PLC (AIM:DELT) today confirmed that it, alongside Shell PLC (LSE:SHEL, NYSE:SHEL), has made a significant new gas discovery in the North Sea.
The Shell-operated Pensacola well has been successfully tested, with gas flows in line with pre-test expectations and significantly the well data confirmed an estimate of 302bn cubic feet of recoverable resources.
BP plc’s fourth-quarter strategy update this Tuesday was an act of “rebalancing the role of traditional businesses versus BP’s low-carbon growth ambitions”, according to equities researchers at Jefferies.
In other words, the British energy multinational is rethinking its relationship with renewable energy following years of disappointing returns, not to mention an improved global outlook for oil and gas.
Shares in Deltic Energy PLC (AIM:DELT) jumped 22% after it said a Shell-drilled well it has a 30% stake in could be one of the biggest natural gas discoveries in the southern North Sea in over a decade.
Flow tests on Pensacola matched estimates, while the potential scale of the discovery was also confirmed, the company told investors in a statement.
BP PLC (LSE:BP.) confirmed bumper profits for the fourth quarter of 2022 albeit slightly shy of the City’s heightened expectations.
The oil supermajor, in its fourth quarter update, confirmed record annual profits along with announcing a dividend hike and another heft equity buy-back.
Shell PLC (LSE:SHEL, NYSE:SHEL) is still the stock of choice in the oil sector, according to Jefferies, which whilst tweaking lower earnings forecasts says it is expecting another bumper shareholder payout.
Jefferies snipped its price target for Shell by around 3% to account for a 5% cut to 2023/24 earnings resulting from higher operating costs brought on by inflation.
Love them or hate them, share buybacks are all the rage right now.
In the first month of 2023 alone, US corporations announced a colossal US$132bn in share repurchases, more than triple the amount announced in January 2022 for a new record, according to data compiled by Birinyi Associates.
Upstream oil and gas company Serica Energy PLC expects net production this year to range between 40,000 and 47,000 of barrels of oil per day (boe/d).
That is almost double the output for 2022, which averaged 26,182 boe/d.
Shares in Longboat Energy PLC (AIM:LBE) jumped 10% at the open after the company confirmed that it is “exploring opportunities to broaden its strategic remit”.
In a brief statement in response to market speculation, it added: “The company is in advanced discussions with a number of parties regarding several opportunities across all phases of the E&P cycle in the south-east Asia region.”
BP PLC (LSE:BP.) has posted record annual profits, an increased dividend and a further hefty share buy-back as it raised earnings targets out to 2030.
“Performing while transforming” was how chief executive, Bernard Looney described the results which were accompanied with an update on its strategic vision.
Union Jack’s hydrocarbon production at its flagship Wressle project is making Shore Capital’s estimates look conservative, said the broker.
Analysts at the investment bank had estimated production of 750 barrels of oil per day in its previously published forecasts.
Calls for a further increase in the windfall tax on North Sea profits will almost certainly grow louder next week when BP PLC (LSE:BP.) reports its full-year numbers.
Shell has already announced the largest profit in its 115-year history and BP is unlikely to be too far behind.
88 Energy Ltd (AIM:88E, ASX:88E, OTC:EEENF) almost never finds itself stuck in the mud and as one project phases into another, investors always seem to have a new set of catalysts on the horizon – and in the coming weeks, Hickory will be the focal point.
88 Energy Ltd (AIM:88E, ASX:88E, OTC:EEENF) has in separate statements revealed that its equity fund raise was oversubscribed and informed investors that it has secured a permit to drill the planned Hickory-1 well in Alaska.
The AIM-quoted explorer, in one statement, said it has raised A$17.5mln, up from the A$15mln targeted, from domestic and international institutional and sophisticated investors, as it successfully completed a bookbuild process. New shares are being issued at 0.95 Australian cents per share (0.55p).
IOG PLC (AIM:IOG) shares again plummeted as its well problems in the North Sea deepened, leaving management “very disappointed”.
Today’s news is that an intervention has significantly reduced water flows from the Southwark A2 well but crucially, this has not resulted in a greater flow of gas from the well.
Union Jack Oil PLC (AIM:UJO) has cheered its latest revenue landmark at the Wressle field where net revenues have now surpassed US$13mln for the small-cap onshore oiler.
The company, in a statement, noted that the one-well development continues to produce at record rates, under natural flow with zero water cut.
Touchstone Exploration Inc (AIM:TXP, TSX:TXP, OTC:PBEGF) has kicked off a programme to side-track the Royston well located in the Ortoire block in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
The Royston-1X side-track is being drilled by the Star Valley Drilling Rig #25 which is presently being mobilised to site. The well is expected to be drilled down to 11,300 feet to target accumulations in the Middle Miocene Herrera overthrust, intermediate, and subthrust sheets.