London, December 13, 2024 (Oilandgaspress) –- Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., has reportedly cut the allocation of crude oil cargoes for some customers in Asia. Volumes were reduced by as much as 230,000 barrels a day across a range of crude grades as per media reports.
Baker Hughes Rig Count: U.S. unchanged at 589 Canada -3 to 191
U.S. Rig Count is unchanged from last week at 589 with oil rigs unchanged at 482, gas rigs up 1 to 103 and miscellaneous rigs down 1 to 4.
Canada Rig Count is down 3 from last week to 191, with oil rigs down 4 to 120, gas rigs up 1 to 71 and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 0.
International Rig Count is down 31 rigs from last month to 919 with land rigs down 14 to 712, offshore rigs down 17 to 207. International Rig Count is down 59 rigs from last year’s count of 978, with land rigs down 46, offshore rigs down 13.
The U.S. Offshore Rig Count is unchanged at 16, down 5 year-over-year.
The Worldwide Rig Count for October was 1,754, up 4 from the 1,751 counted in September 2024, and down 22, from the 1,776 counted in October 2023.
| Region | Period | Rig Count | Change |
| U.S.A | 13 December 2024 | 589 | +0 |
| Canada | 13 December 2024 | 191 | -3 |
| International | November 2024 | 919 | -31 |
Audi will close its Brussels plant after the German car maker was unable to find a buyer.
The factory, which will shut 28 February, currently builds the Q8 E-tron electric SUV, again sparking the question that Audi could end its production earlier than planned. Its successor is tipped to be produced in Mexico. Audi was said to be in talks with a number of car makers over potentially buying the plant; Belgian media reported that Chinese EV maker Nio was the front runner; its CEO William Li denied this.
However an Audi spokesperson confirmed in November that talks had broken down, leaving the plant’s closure inevitable.
This brings into question the future of the current generation Q8 E-tron. Originally known just as the E-tron, Audi’s first series-production electric car went into production in 2018 and was heavily updated in 2022 with a new name, tweaked styling and a much larger battery. Read More
A major step towards CO2-neutral local transport: the Hamburg metropolitan region welcomes 95 new Mercedes-Benz eCitaro buses to the fleet of vhh.mobility (Verkehrsbetriebe Hamburg-Holstein). They are ready to roll out through the streets of the Hanseatic city quietly and sustainably. The buses ordered in spring 2023 have been delivered successively since then. The last units were ceremoniously handed over to vhh.mobility today by Federal Minister of Justice and Federal Minister for Digital and Transport Dr. Volker Wissing and Till Oberwörder, CEO Daimler Buses.
vhh.mobility relies on electric mobility
Vhh.mobility, germany’s third-largest municipal bus operator, is one of the pioneers in the electrification of local transport. In 2014, the company put the first electric bus in the Hamburg metropolitan region into operation – today, over a third of the fleet is already electric. Numerous eCitaro and eCitaro G buses are already in use at vhh.mobility. With the 95 new eCitaro buses, including 47 three-door solo buses and 48 four-door eCitaro G articulated buses, the number rises to a remarkable total of 132 fully electric Mercedes-Benz buses in the vhh.mobility fleet. . Read More
Alpine is setting up in Le Mans, opening a new project that will allow visitors to experience the brand to the full: its first experience centre, La Piste Bleue Alpine. From today, everyone can discover the Alpine universe and test drive the A290 and the entire A110 range on the legendary Bugatti circuit to experience a driving sensation like no other.
La Piste Bleue Alpine allows you to participate in driving sessions supervised by qualified instructors, technical workshops and immersive guided tours retracing the legendary history of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. La Piste Bleue Alpine is located at the edge of the Bugatti circuit, Chemin aux Bœufs, a stone’s throw from the southern entrance to the Le Mans 24 Hours racetrack. The 450m² building reflects the brand’s values, using materials such as metal, in reference to the A110’s aluminium body and chassis, renowned for its lightness, strength and recyclability. The blue exterior is a reminder of the brand’s heritage, dating back to the first A110 Berlinette. Read More
Vestas has secured a firm and unconditional order for the 1.1 GW Inch Cape Offshore Wind project in Scotland from Inch Cape Offshore Limited, an equal joint venture between ESB and Red Rock Renewables.
The agreement is for the supply, installation, and commissioning of 72 V236-15.0 MW wind turbines. Upon completion, Vestas will also deliver a 10-year service agreement followed by an operational support agreement.
“We are incredibly proud to have partnered with our trusted customers on this project. Inch Cape will have a significant impact on UK’s sustainable energy future, and we are grateful to stand at the forefront of this transition. Together with our partners, we are making significant strides towards the UK government’s commitment to quadruple offshore wind by 2030, as a cornerstone of its goal to fully decarbonise electricity by 2030”, says Nils de Baar, President Vestas Northern & Central Europe.
Inch Cape Project Director, John Hill said: “Securing the full notice to proceed on the agreement is a great milestone for the project. The 72 V236-15.0 MW turbines are the latest state-of-the-art turbines from Vestas and will generate more than 5TWh of renewable electricity each year, making an important contribution to the UK’s energy security and representing a valuable reduction in carbon emissions.”
The Inch Cape project offshore site is in the Scottish North Sea, 15 kilometres off the Angus coast, with the turbine installation harbour being based in the Port of Dundee. According to the current state of planning, wind turbine installation is scheduled to begin in 2026, and the wind farm is expected to be fully operational in 2027. This firm order announcement refers to the conditional agreement announced on 30 September 2024. Read More
RTX has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Netherlands Aerospace Group (NAG) providing a strategic framework for collaboration on technology research and development. Under the MOU, RTX Read More
KBR announced it has been awarded an estimated $445 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract under the Department of Defense Information Analysis Center’s (DoD IAC) multiple-award contract (MAC) vehicle. These DoD IAC MAC task orders are awarded by the U.S. Air Force’s 774th Enterprise Sourcing Squadron to develop and create new knowledge for the enhancement of the DTIC repository and the R&D and S&T community. This recompete for the Joint Mission Environment Test Capability (JMETC) program supports the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Test Resource Management Center (TRMC). The work will be performed over a period of five years across multiple DoD locations. The JMETC environment provides a test infrastructure consisting of the components necessary to conduct joint distributed test events by cost-effectively integrating live, virtual, and constructive test resources that are configured to support the users’ needs. Under the terms of the contract, KBR will research, assess and address unique test and experimentation requirements to enhance JMETC’s capabilities and integrate work into additional locations. KBR will support the TRMC in expanding test and experimentation connectivity and develop enhanced capabilities for test and experimentation environments through research, data analysis, system development, evaluations, strategic planning, and assessments.
“Building upon more than 24 years of support to this customer, KBR continues to leverage enhanced capabilities for critical technology areas for the Department of Defense,” said Stuart Bradie, KBR President and CEO. “This contract highlights KBR’s commitment and support to the United States military through innovation and technological developments.”
For the past five years, KBR has leaned forward expanding our support across many DoD critical technology areas including artificial intelligence (AI/ML), hypersonics, big data, RDT&E networking gear, multi-domain operations, cybersecurity, and event support for essential large force exercises and experimentation events. KBR serves as subject matter experts in T&E Science and Technology (S&T) for these DoD test and evaluation infrastructure capabilities. Read More
Renewable sources like wind, solar, hydro, and geothermal have the potential to meet and even exceed global energy needs when combined with adequate infrastructure and energy storage solutions. Countries like Iceland and Norway illustrate this advance; they are already operating primarily on renewable resources.
Globally, the potential is vast; it’s more a question of commitment and technological access rather than capability. Read More
Why renewables are our ‘once-in-a-generation’ chance to fix the sector’s gender crisis
Cheryl Scott is a Recruitment Manager at Visuna, an energy and tech recruitment specialist with offices around the world. Having worked at Visuna for 15 years, she is an expert in the oilfield services industry and has a particularly strong presence in Saudi Arabia where she currently manages over 100 contractors.
JAMES Brown once sang how this is a man’s world.
In the energy sector, that’s sadly still the case.
Barely a fifth of jobs are currently filled by women.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) there are 76 per cent fewer women than men in this industry. For context, across the rest of society, that figure is just eight per cent.
Let that sobering stat sink in for a second, and then acknowledge the cold, hard truth.
The energy sector needs to do more to help women thrive.
Just look at the industry-wide pay gap; Again, according to the IEA, women earn 15 per cent less than their male peers.
Yes, energy – especially oil and gas – has historically been a male-dominated industry.
Yet unless that changes, our industry’s in grave danger of not only becoming an equality and diversity dinosaur – but also missing out on some of the best young minds in the job market.
At Visuna, we’ve long championed women in the energy sector.
As a company, we’ve even broken the mould – the majority of our staff are women – with many in senior leadership positions.
And trust us, it has worked wonders.
We’ve enjoyed rapid year-on-year growth with a current global talent pool of approximately 150,000 experts within the oil, gas, renewable and tech fields with other mediums granting us access to over a million consultants.
We’ve helped many women (and men) find their dream energy career.
Yet there’s still a visible shortfall in the number of new women entering that talent pool.
If our industry is to thrive we need to take responsibility and ensure we are doing all we can to ensure that changes.
Thankfully, there are green shoots of optimism.
In the United States, the number of graduates with degrees linked to the energy sector has risen in recent years. In fact, STEM degrees have enjoyed a year-on-year increase in uptake since 2009.
Anecdotally, it feels the emergence of the renewable sector has at least partially fuelled this, as it is helping to redefine exactly what an energy career is.
No longer do people automatically link it to men drilling in oil fields or spending weeks offshore. Renewables are a far more enticing option for women, and one we believe can help close the gap.
But we should also look at emerging economies for hope. For example, in India, women are increasingly studying STEM degrees which are definite launchpads for our sector while UNESCO data shows that up to 57 per cent of STEM graduates in Arab countries are now women.
As an industry skilling programmes in emerging countries could also help to expand the female labour workforce. Projects in nations like Kenya, Nepal and Sri Lanka have already sought to raise awareness of the energy sector as a potential career path for women.
Which begs the question; Why isn’t more isn’t being done closer to home?
In the EU for example, STEM degree uptake among women has been flat for over a decade. They are still heavily dominated by males.
Yet that’s against an unprecedented cultural backdrop of inclusivity and equality.
That’s why the rise of sustainable energy truly is a once-in-a-generation moment to close the gap.
As the IEA stated, it is a “golden opportunity for greater gender diversity”.
At Visuna, we are already bucking the trend. In what’s still a male-dominated industry, we are proud to work with so many women, both in-house and as contractors, and we are passionate about working with other progressive organisations who are determined to readdress this balance.
Because if we don’t all pull our weight, we’ll remain dinosaurs.
And we all know what happened to them…
By Visuna’s Cheryl Scott, cheryl.scott@visuna.com Read More
QatarEnergy has selected the joint venture of Japan’s Mitsui O.S.K Lines Ltd. (MOL) and China’s COSCO Shipping LNG Investment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. (CSLNG) to own and operate 6 QC-Max size LNG vessels. The 6 vessels will be built in China by Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Group, a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC). These vessels are the last batch of the 128 LNG vessels in QatarEnergy’s historic ship building program, made up of 104 conventional and 24 QC-Max size ultra-modern vessels. The long-term Time Charter Party (TCP) agreements were awarded to the shipowners during a special ceremony held at QatarEnergy’s headquarters in Doha under the patronage of His Excellency Mr. Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, the President and CEO of QatarEnergy. Taking part in the ceremony were Mr. Takeshi Hashimoto, the President & Chief Executive Officer of MOL, and Mr. Zhang Feng, Vice President of China COSCO Shipping Corporation (the parent company of CSLNG), in the presence of senior executives from both shipowners as well as QatarEnergy and QatarEnergy LNG.
In remarks at the ceremony, His Excellency Mr. Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi said: “This is the last batch of long-term shipowner contracts in our 128-vessel strong historic shipbuilding program that will cater for QatarEnergy’s future LNG fleet requirements for our LNG expansion projects, as well as the replacement requirements of some of our existing fleet.”
His Excellency Minister Al-Kaabi added: “We are proud to have forged very important partnerships and business relations with many companies and joint ventures including today’s new partnership with MOL and COSCO Shipping.”
The MOL-CSLNG joint venture has already entered long-term TCP agreements with QatarEnergy for 7 conventional LNG vessels, executed in 2022, giving the joint venture a total of 13 long-term TCPs under QatarEnergy’s LNG fleet expansion program. Read More
| Oil and Gas Blends | Units | Oil Price | Change |
| Crude Oil (WTI) | USD/bbl | $70.63 | Up |
| Crude Oil (Brent) | USD/bbl | $73.94 | Down |
| Bonny Light 13/12/24 CBN | USD/bbl | $75.59 | Up |
| Dubai | USD/bbl | $72.80 | — |
| Natural Gas | USD/MMBtu | $3.15 | Down |
| Murban Crude | USD/bbl | $73.89 | — |
| OPEC basket 13/12/24 | USD/bbl | $73.58 | Up |
People’s Daily wrote that Chinese workers have succeeded in ringing the entire Taklamakan Desert in trees.
Last week, the final 100 trees were planted around the southern edge of the world’s most hostile desert, completing an epic endeavor sometimes called the ‘Green’ Great Wall of China. Northern and western Chinese provinces suffer from dust and sand storms blowing off the Taklamakan—a word that in native etymology means “Go in and don’t come out”—souring the air and placing arable land at risk of desertification.
It’s the world’s second-largest shifting sand desert, as well as the farthest point from an ocean it’s possible to find on Earth. The areas around the Taklamakan are some of the poorest in the entire country. Read More
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