Williams’s Transco interstate pipeline executed binding, 15-year commitments with Seneca Resources Co. LLC and Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. for 100% of the 580 million dekatherms of firm transportation capacity under its proposed Leidy South expansion project designed to expand Marcellus and Utica takeaway capacity. Source: News

Valeura Energy Inc., Calgary, expects drilling to take 80 days at the first of three appraisal wells it plans to assess the vertical and lateral extent of its basin-centered gas accumulation play in northwestern Turkey. Source: News

Woodside Energy Ltd., Perth, has chosen Bechtel as the preferred execution contractor for the proposed expansion of its Pluto LNG facility on the Burrup Peninsula near Karratha in Western Australia. Woodside said it would work closely with Bechtel in preparation for award of the contract for the front-end engineering and design phase of the Pluto project. […]

DNO is preparing to spud the first well on its Baeshiqa license east of Mosul in Iraqi Kurdistan after having raised production at Peshkabir oil field to the northwest to 50,000 b/d. The first Baeshiqa well will target Cretaceous strata. A second well will target Jurassic and Triassic layers on the same structure. A third […]

Crude oil prices retreated slightly on both the New York and London markets Oct. 8 with light, sweet crude prices dropping 5¢/bbl while Brent crude price prices dropped about 24¢/bbl, attributed, in part, to indications that market disruption from pending sanctions on Iranian supply may be less impactful than expected. Source: News

Saudi Aramco and Total SA have signed an agreement to launch front-end engineering design for their previously announced proposal to add an integrated petrochemical complex downstream of their jointly held Saudi Aramco Total Refinery & Petrochemicals Co.’s 440,000-b/d full conversion refinery in Jubail, on Saudi Arabia’s eastern coast. Source: News

Ensco PLC and Rowan Cos. PLC have agreed definitively to merge in an all-stock deal forming an offshore drilling contractor with 82 rigs with current operations and contracts off six continents. Source: News

Royal Dutch Shell PLC subsidiary Shell Nederland Raffinaderij BV has commissioned a new solvent deasphalter unit at its 404,000-b/d Pernis refinery and integrated petrochemical production site in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Source: News

State-owned Sonatrach SPA and Total SA have signed two agreements to further Algerian gas and petrochemicals development as part of the companies’ comprehensive partnership announced in 2017. Source: News

Drilling-efficiency improvement and other cost-cutting measures have trimmed investment need for oil and gas fields Equinor is developing on the Norwegian continental shelf by 30 billion kroner ($4 billion) from original estimates. Source: News