PAO Novatek has secured a 25-year exploration license for the Osenniy area in the Yamal-Nenets autonomous region for an estimated 1.4 billion rubles, Novatek said. The license contains an estimated 4.411 billion boe, according to the Russian resource classification. Source: News

Twinza Oil Ltd., Perth, has started flow of natural gas and condensate from its Pasca A-4 appraisal well in the Papau New Guinea Gulf of Papua. Pasca field, a carbonate pinnacle reef discovered by Phillips Petroleum in 1968, lies in permit PPL 328 in 93 m of water about 250 km west of Port Moresby. […]

Seventeen environmental organizations have sued in US District Court for Northern California to compel the US Bureau of Land Management to implement its oil and gas 2016 methane venting and flaring rule. Their Dec. 19 action challenges BLM’s decision earlier in December to delay most of the regulation’s compliance deadlines until Jan. 29, 2019, while […]

Inter Pipeline Ltd., Calgary, has approved construction of Canada’s first integrated propane dehydrogenation (PDH) and polypropylene (PP) complex in Strathcona County, Alta., to convert locally sourced, low-cost propane into PP for sale mostly to the US.  Source: News

Repsol SA expects to recover 65 million bbl of oil stranded at currently shut-in Yme field in the Norwegian North Sea. The operator on Dec. 19 submitted a new plan for development and operation for the field that will use existing facilities installed during the last development phase in 2007. Source: News

ADES International Holding Ltd. signed a purchase and sale agreement with Nabors Drilling International II Ltd., a subsidiary of Nabors Industries Ltd., to acquire three operating offshore jack up rigs currently contracted in the Persian Gulf. Source: News

The French legislature has passed the ban on oil and gas exploration and production announced earlier this year. Source: News

Crude oil prices rose modestly on both the New York and London markets Dec. 19 pending release of the US government’s weekly inventory report on crude oil and product supplies. The US Energy Information Administration said commercial crude oil inventories, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, decreased 6.5 million bbl for the week ended Dec. 15 […]