Eni Signs MOU with China

Eni (NYSE:E) revealed Tuesday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the People’s Republic of China on energy cooperation.

The MOU, which was signed by Eni Chief Executive Officer Claudio Descalzi and Director General of the International Cooperation Center of the National Development and Reform Commission Huang Yong, establishes a cooperation framework aimed at facilitating joint initiatives between Eni and Chinese counterparts across the entire energy value chain in China and internationally, Eni noted.

As part of the deal, the parties will explore potential opportunities of collaboration focusing on low-carbon energy sources, advanced technologies and circular economy initiatives, Eni outlined.

“Such a partnership allows Eni and ICC-NDRC to share knowledge and best practices, assess the impact of energy policies and market regulations, identify areas of mutual interest and develop relationships with Chinese institutions and companies at the national, provincial and municipal levels,” Eni said in a statement posted on its website.

Eni has been present in China since 1984 and recently established a new representative office in Beijing. The company conducts exploration, production, refining and marketing activities in the country, according to its website.

Earlier this month, Eni revealed that it had signed an MOU with Saipem to cooperate on the identification and engineering of decarbonization initiatives and projects in Italy. The companies intend to identify possible opportunities for collaboration related to the carbon capture, utilization and storage of CO2 produced by industrial districts in the Italian territory, Eni highlighted.

Back in July, Eni announced that it had signed an MOU with Sonatrach with the aim of expanding their collaboration in the context of upstream activities. In June, Eni and Korea Gas Corporation signed an MOU to identify specific cooperation opportunities in areas such as exploration and production projects, LNG projects, downstream and infrastructure projects and circular economy and low-carbon energy projects.

Source: https://www.rigzone.com/news/eni_signs_mou_with_china-30-dec-2020-164212-article/

/by

Exxon’s latest multi-billion writedown signals another quarterly loss

By Joe Carroll and Kevin Crowley on 12/31/2020

(Bloomberg) –Exxon Mobil Corp., which is struggling to maintain a $15 billion-a-year dividend program, indicated it incurred a fourth straight quarterly loss.

Exxon confirmed in a filing Wednesday it will take a writedown of as much as $20 billion on its upstream assets, a possibility first disclosed at the end of October. It also reported much smaller non-cash impairments related to its refining business.

There were some positives. Higher oil and gas prices had an impact of up to $1 billion on upstream profits compared with the third quarter. The chemicals segment saw an earnings boost of as much as $400 million due to improved margins. Exxon’s shares were little changed in after-hours trading in New York.

Still, a fourth-quarter loss would confirm Exxon’s challenges in covering both dividends and capital expenditures from operational cash flow, and remains reliant on debt. The last time the Irving, Texas-based company generated enough free cash to cover its payout was the third quarter of 2018, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Exxon is set to disclose its full quarterly results on Feb. 2, amid one of the most-punishing periods in the company’s 150-year history. Its stock cratered to a 22-year low during 2020 amid a worldwide glut of oil and collapsing demand that gutted cash flow, spurring widespread job cuts. Exxon was kicked out of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, warned it will incur the biggest writedown of its modern history, and was assailed by activist investors seeking better returns and more climate accountability.

Exxon, which has long prided itself on its decades-long record of annual dividend increases, may have opened the door to changing course in late November, according to Cowen & Co. analyst Jason Gabelman. Whereas company executives touted Exxon’s “reliable and growing dividend” during an October conference call, a Nov. 30 statement announcing writedowns and spending cuts only mentioned its commitment to a “reliable” payout, Gabelman said in a note to clients.

Source: https://www.worldoil.com/news/2020/12/31/exxon-s-latest-multi-billion-writedown-signals-another-quarterly-loss

/by

ICCIMA to hold online meeting for exploring trade opportunities with Oman

TEHRAN – Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) plans to hold an online meeting on January 11, 2021 to explore opportunities and capacities of trade with Oman, ICCIMA portal announced.

The meeting will be attended by the head of the Iran-Oman Joint Chamber of Commerce, representatives of provincial chambers of commerce, and heads of relevant committees and organizations.

Opportunities, challenges, and obstacles related to the economic cooperation between the private sectors of the two countries will be reviewed by the ICCIMA deputy for international affairs and the chairman of the Iran-Oman Joint Chamber in this meeting and a report on the latest developments in the region, bilateral cooperation, and future prospects will also be presented.

Also, problems and solutions to facilitate the entry of Iranian companies into the Omani market will be discussed by the representatives of the provincial chambers, as well as the heads and representatives of the relevant committees and organizations.

Despite the U.S. re-imposition of sanctions against the Islamic Republic, Oman is getting closer to Iran both politically and economically. There is also the same approach adopted by Iran, as Iranian companies now prefer to conduct trade with Oman rather than the United Arab Emirates (UAE), given that the UAE is highly complying with the sanctions.

Iran is somehow replacing some of its previous strategic trade partners such as UAE with Oman, considering the Sultanate as an economic-trade hub.

Over the past year, there have been many meetings and negotiations between trade and economic officials from the state-run and private sectors of the two sides with the aim of strengthening and expanding bilateral trade ties.

During the 18th meeting of the Iran-Oman Joint Economic Committee in Tehran last December, Omani minister of commerce and industry said his country is trying to boost its trade and economic ties with Iran, stressing that this goal can be achieved through more cooperation between the two sides’ private sectors.

Source: https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/456279/ICCIMA-to-hold-online-meeting-for-exploring-trade-opportunities

/by

Loading, unloading of goods rise in Anzali, Astara ports

TEHRAN- Loading and unloading of commodities in Iran’s northern Anzali and Astara ports have increased during the first nine months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-December 20), compared to the same period of time in the past year, according to a provincial official.

Mohammad-Mohsen Salimipour, the deputy head of Gilan Province’s Ports and Maritime Department for the ports and economic affairs, put the amount of loading and unloading at 1.184 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) at the mentioned ports during the nine-month period.

The official said 1.033 million TEUs of goods have been loaded and unloaded at Anzali Port, which has been 38 percent more than the amount of the same period of time in the past year.

At Astara Port, 151,000 tons of commodities have been loaded and unloaded, with a 27-percent rise year on year, he added.

Located in Gilan Province, north of Iran, Anzali Free Trade-Industrial Zone is the sole free zone in the southern part of the Caspian Sea with an area of 9,400 hectares and 40 kilometers shoreline.

It is one of the country’s seven free trade-industrial zones.

Located on the North-South International Corridor, having a special position in connection with the Caspian littoral states, proximity to the ports of Astrakhan and Lagan in Russia, Aktau in Kazakhstan, and Baku in Azerbaijan, access through convenient routes to the consumer markets of CIS countries, and proximity to Rasht International Airport are some advantages of Anzali Free Zone.

Astara Port is 60 hectares and it is the first port of the private sector in Iran. It is the closest and the most cost-effective way for trade and transport between Asia, Africa, and Europe. It has been designed for loading and unloading 2,500-ton freighters.

Located by the Caspian Sea, Astara has sea, land, and railway borders points with the Azerbaijan Republic.

Even during the coronavirus outbreak, the port is considered one of the main points for Iran’s export and import.

Source: https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/456322/Loading-unloading-of-goods-rise-in-Anzali-Astara-ports

/by

Pakistan seeking expansion of trade ties with Iran

TEHRAN – Pakistan’s Advisor to Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood said on Monday his country is seeking to enhance ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran, especially in economic areas, IRNA reported.

Mentioning his upcoming visit to Tehran for attending the two countries’ ninth Joint Economic Committee meeting, Dawood said: “This meeting was due to be held in October but following the escalation of the coronavirus spread the event was postponed and the new date for the meeting will be announced soon.”

He underlined his country’s new policies for facilitating trade with neighbors, including Iran and Afghanistan, and stressed: “The barriers for trade with our country are gradually being removed, we are pursuing the same approach with Iran.”

“Our relations with Iran are improving and we hope that the development of the two countries’ economic ties will go beyond political relations,” he added.

The official further emphasized that his country is eager for expanding trade ties with Iran, saying: “The Islamic Republic of Iran and the expansion of trade and commerce with the country is very important for Pakistan, so our focus is on developing trade and bringing it to a desirable level.”

Praising the opening of the second official border with Iran, the advisor said the Pakistani government is keen on developing border markets and infrastructure with Iran.

The Rimdan-Gabd border was officially inaugurated on December 19 in the presence of officials from the two countries, becoming the second border crossing between the two neighbors.

Considering Pakistan’s relatively large consumer market, expansion of trade with the country and boosting exports to its market has become one of Iran’s priorities in recent years.

Iran’s exports to Pakistan in the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19) stood at $1.18 billion, but in the meantime, financial and banking problems have still created obstacles in the way of trade relations with this country.

Source: https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/456324

/by

Saudi oil exports in October fall by almost a third

Overall exports fell by 24.7% mainly due to the fall in oil shipments, which made up about two-thirds of the total compared to about three quarters in October last year

Saudi Arabia‘s oil exports in October fell by 18.9 billion riyals ($5.04 billion), down by nearly a third, while non-oil exports fell by 0.3%.
Overall exports fell by 24.7% mainly due to the fall in oil shipments, which made up about two-thirds of the total compared to about three quarters in October last year.
Oil exports in October fell by 32.7% year on year but were up by 3.7% from September.

Total exports were up 8.4%, or 4.48 billion riyals, compared to September.

The world’s largest oil exporter‘s economy is forecast to shrink by 5% this year, the International Monetary Fund has said.

Source: https://energy.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/oil-and-gas/saudi-oil-exports-in-october-fall-by-almost-a-third/79950048

/by

Schlumberger, OMV Upstream deploy AI and digital solutions powered by DELFI

LONDON —Schlumberger and OMV Upstream announced an enterprise-wide deployment of AI and digital solutions enabled by the cloud-based DELFI cognitive E&P environment, across OMV’s global operations. The five-year agreement will see the two companies collaborate to enhance efficiencies across OMV’s operations and position the company as a digital front-runner in the energy industry.

“We are working hand in hand with OMV; jointly innovating on projects to support specific business goals like the reduction of well planning times and acceleration of field development planning, supported by leading digital technologies deployed within the DELFI environment,” said Rajeev Sonthalia, president, Digital & Integration, Schlumberger. “This global digital deployment is a testament to the operational teams of both companies. The successes we have already achieved together underpin our innovation mindset to set us on a steady path toward achieving the enterprise-scale successes OMV is targeting.”

“OMV and Schlumberger share the belief that digitalization is more than technology,” said Johann Pleininger, Executive Board member responsible for Upstream and Deputy Chairman of OMV. “It’s a new way of working and how we organize our global businesses. We are leveraging the DELFI environment to make the integration of our teams a reality. The powerful combination of physical science enhanced with new digital technologies leads to significantly faster and more informed decisions across both technical disciplines and operational settings. This can make our business even more efficient and therefore more cost-effective.”

An extensive pilot deployment of the DELFI environment helped OMV realize operational efficiencies in exploration, field development planning, drilling and well planning. The OMV Upstream subsurface team used AI-enhanced workflows in the DELFI Petrotechnical Suite to automatically create and simulate 200 model realizations in one-sixth of the time. In well planning operations, the DrillPlan solution helped plan eight wells in the time it would normally take to plan one.

The agreement formalizes the commitment from both companies to progress the industry standard OSDU data platform and lays the foundation for further collaboration and innovation for workflows and solutions across the energy spectrum.

Source: https://www.worldoil.com/news/2020/12/17/schlumberger-omv-upstream-deploy-ai-and-digital-solutions-powered-by-delfi

/by

Iran, Russia agree on expansion of technical co-op in oil, gas sectors

TEHRAN- Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said that Iran and Russia agreed to boost technical cooperation in the oil and gas sectors, IRNA reported.

The minister made the remarks after his meeting with the Russia Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak and Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov in Moscow on Monday.

“We discussed the issues related to stabilizing the global oil market in the meeting”, Zanganeh stated.

“Russia has played a decisive role in stabilizing the global oil market over the years, and we talked with each other in the framework of OPEC Plus, given the serious cooperation in OPEC”, he said, adding, “Our views in this area were close to each other.”

Mentioning that the OPEC Plus meeting will be held on January 4, the minister said that a meeting in this regard will be held in February as well.

He said both countries stressed the importance of doing so to maintain the stability of the global oil market and future prospects in this area.

During the meeting with Zanganeh, the Russian deputy prime minister called for more cooperation between Iran and Russia especially in the field of energy.

Source: https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/456044/Iran-Russia-agree-on-expansion-of-technical-co-op-in-oil-gas

/by

Agricultural exports from Kordestan Province increase 29%

TEHRAN- The export of agricultural products from Kordestan Province, in west of Iran, has increased 29 percent in the first eight months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-November 20), compared to the same period of time in the past year, according to a provincial official.

Shahriar Hanifi, the trade promotion director of the province’s Agriculture Department, announced that 706,000 tons of agricultural products valued at $258 million have been exported from the province in the eight-month period.

He said while the province’s eight-month agricultural export has risen 1.9-fold in terms of weight, its value has increased 29 percent year on year.

The value of Iran’s agricultural products export has risen 13 percent during the first eight months of the present year, compared to the same period of time in the past year, according to an official with the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA).

Mehrdad Jamal Orounaqi, the IRICA deputy head for technical and customs affairs, put the value of exported products at $3.842 billion in the eight-month period of the present year.

The official said the weight of agricultural products exported in the mentioned period has risen 27 percent to stand at 5.450 million tons.

Orounaqi pointed out that pistachios, tomatoes, watermelons, tomato paste, pistachio kernels, and apples were the main export items in the mentioned period, noting that the total weight of these items was 1,518,000 tons worth $1.312 billion.

According to the official, 1.417 million tons of the mentioned products worth one billion had been exported during the first eight months of the previous year, that shows that this year’s export has risen 30 percent in terms of value and seven percent in terms of weight.

Regarding the export of pistachio, the deputy minister said: “The export of this commodity this year was 109,000 tons worth $675 million, which has increased by 82 percent in terms of value compared to last year.”

Iran exported over $5.8 billion worth of agricultural and foodstuff products in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19), the Head of Agriculture Ministry’s Planning and Economic Affairs Department Shahrokh Shajari has announced.

According to the official, about 7.104 million tons of such products worth $5.821 billion were exported to foreign destinations last year.

In the mentioned period, over 6.941 million tons of agricultural and foodstuff products worth $6.392 billion were also imported into the country, according to Shajari.

Watermelons, apples, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, and shallots were the top five exported products in the previous year in terms of weight, while in terms of value, pistachios, apples, tomatoes, pistachio kernels, and watermelons were the five major exported items.

Source: https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/456069/Agricultural-exports-from-Kordestan-Province-increase-29

/by

Over 3.7m tons of steel ingot exported in 8 months

TEHRAN- Iran has exported 3.787 million tons of steel ingot during the first eight months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-November 20), according to the data released by the Iranian Steel Producers Association (ISPA).

The released data show that the country’s steel ingot export has fallen 13 percent in the eight-month period of this year, from that of the same period of time in the past year, which was 4.377 million tons.

While the export of this product has dropped in the mentioned time span, its production has increased eight percent.

Over 19 million tons of steel ingot was produced during the eight-month period of the present year.

Production of steel ingot in Iran is expected to surpass 30 million tons in the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 20, 2021), Deputy Industry, Mining, and Trade Minister Darioush Esmaili has announced.

Saying that Iran is currently the world’s 10th biggest steel producer, the official underscored that the country is planning to rise to 8th place by the Iranian calendar year 1404 (starts in March 2025).

He said the Industry Ministry has it on the agenda to increase the country’s steel ingot production to 55 million tons by 2025, for which 160 million tons of iron ore is required annually.

“Given the country’s 2.8-billion-ton iron ore reserves, we need new explorations in this field, because when the annual steel ingot production capacity reaches 55 million tons, the current production levels of iron ore can only supply the industry for 12 to 13 years,” the official stated.

In a bid to prevent the exports of unprocessed minerals, creating more value-added and meeting the requirements of domestic producers for the raw materials, Iran has levied a 25-percent duty on the exports of raw minerals (especially iron ore) since late September 2019.

Industry, Mining and Trade Ministry believes that the duty is going to encourage the production of more processed minerals such as pellets and concentrate instead of selling the raw minerals.

Some 10 years ago Iran exported more than 20 million tons of unprocessed iron ore and the figure fell to a maximum of six million tons last year.

As the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO) has announced, Iran’s annual steel ingot production is planned to increase 3.2 million tons in the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 20, 2021).

Source: https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/456066/Over-3-7m-tons-of-steel-ingot-exported-in-8-months

/by