The US and Canadian governments will work together to reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas industries in their countries 40-45% from 2012 levels by 2025, President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a joint statement during Trudeau’s visit to Washington. Source: News

India’s Union Cabinet has approved a multifaceted Hydrocarbon Exploration & Licensing Policy (HELP) to spur investment and enhance production, according to the government’s Press Information Bureau (PIB). Source: News

Oil production in Libya—recently one fourth of its 1.65 million b/d average prior to the start of civil unrest in 2011—will “remain constrained by realities on the ground perhaps for years,” warns ESAI Energy LLC, Wakefield, Mass. Source: News

New Zealand Refining Co. Ltd. (NZRC), the country’s sole refiner, has officially opened the long-awaited $365-million (NZ) Te Mahi Hou (TMH) expansion project at its 107,000-b/d Marsden Point refinery at Northland on the North Island’s east coast. Source: News

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate has granted Det norske oljeselskap AS a drilling permit for well 16/1-26 S in production license 001 B offshore Norway. The well will be drilled by the Maersk Interceptor drilling facility. Source: News

Eni SPA has successfully performed the production test of the Zohr 2X well, the first appraisal well of the Zohr natural gas discovery on the Shorouk block offshore Egypt. The Zohr 2X well was drilled to 13,684 ft, encountering 1,614 ft of continuous hydrocarbon column in a carbonate sequence with 305 m of net pay. […]

State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) subsidiary Azerikimya Production Union (APU) has let a contract to a division of Technip SA, Paris, for work related to the ongoing modernization and reconstruction of APU’s ethylene and polyethylene (PE) production plant in Sumgait, north of Baku. Source: News