Falklands : Hydrocarbons Daily Record (09/01/07)
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 10.01.2007 (Article Archived on 24.01.2007)
Mild weather in the US and investors wishing to seek alternatives have helped to lower the price of crude today.
HYDROCARBONS DAILY RECORD: TUESDAY, 09 JANUARY 2007
By J. Brock (FINN)
At 1800 LMT on Tuesday, 09 January 2007 Light Sweet Crude closed down -.45 Cents to settle at $55.64 on the New York Mercantile Exchange and Brent Crude lost -.35 Cents to settle at $55.25 on London’s ICE Futures Market.
TRENDS:
Mild weather in the US and investors seeking other opportunities helped to lower the price of crude today. There is still no indication whether the planned cuts in production by OPEC countries will help to increase the price of crude but consumers want to put that off for as long as possible while they are recuperating from last summer’s artificially high gasoline prices in the US. It is understood that businesses and consumers in some areas of the United States are discussing the feasibility of installing hydrogen fill-up points at filling stations.
THE MARKETS:
FTSE 100 closed at 6,196.10 up 1.94 points
FTSE 250 closed at 11,150.50 down -5.47
FTSE Small Cap closed at 3.939.90 up 7.24
DJI closed at 12,416.60 down -6.89
NASDAQ closed at 2,443.83 up +5.63
S&P500 closed at 1,412.11 down -0.73
WORLD-WIDE DEVELOPMENTS:
A meeting of the Oil Supply Group of the European Union Commission convened on Tuesday to analyze the impact of this week’s cuts in oil supplies from Russia via Belarus. The group will also discuss measures to cope with shortages of oil products. The group believes it is unacceptable that energy suppliers or transit countries do not inform their counterparts about decisions that may affect their supplies. The oil supply group calls upon the two Parties involved to immediately find an acceptable solution to the situation and to restore oil supplies to the European Union without delay. The group are looking for ways to avoid disruption to energy supplies in the future.
REGIONAL DEVELOPMENTS:
(Venezuela)
Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez has taken a hard line on Monday with major oil companies who upgrade tar oil from the world's largest hydrocarbons deposit. Until now, Venezuela’s oil officials have said that companies operating in the Orinoco basin would have to give the state at least a 51% stake in upstream oil operations but that the government would allow its foreign partners to maintain control of multi-billion-dollar up-graders that convert the tar oil into a lighter grades of crude that can be exported to refineries abroad. On Monday, Chavez said the upgrading side of the business must also pass on to the state. PdVSA has recently teamed up with roughly a dozen foreign state-oil companies to quantify recoverable reserves in the area, which it estimates at 235 billion barrels.
In a financial report submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, state-run oil holding Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa) gave a positive spin on the progress of risk prospecting and profit sharing. During the meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) held last December, the Venezuelan Minister of Energy and Petroleum and Pdvsa CEO Rafael Ramírez clarified that, “no commercial production can be expected in the absence of joint ventures, as established in the Hydrocarbons Organic Law.” Pdvsa is entitled to hold over 50 percent of such joint ventures. He said that talks started with the private partners concerned and “migration should be concomitant to the discussions related to strategic partnerships in the Orinoco oil belt.” The other block, operated by US Exxon Mobil, is La Ceiba. While there have been different opinions, authorities claim that its marketability has not been defined yet. As a result, the oil ministry ordered the foreign corporation to stop the oil drilling testing. According to Pdvsa data for 2012, last year risk prospecting was set to drill 20,000 bpd of oil to reach 120,000 by 2010.
(Falkland Islands)
Relevant Share Prices for Tuesday, 09 January 2007:
Tullow Oil down -12.25 to settle at 363.75
Desire Petroleum down -0.25 to settle at 33.25
FOGL down -3.50 to settle at 96.50
Rockhopper Exploration down -1.00 to settle at 40.00
Borders & Southern unchanged at 39.00
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