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UN sends warning to Chevron after plumes of methane found over Gorgon project

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-23/large-methane-plumes-above-chevron-gorgon-project-investigation/

Independent satellite monitoring has detected massive plumes of methane emerging from one of Australia's largest oil and gas complexes.

The persistent clouds above Chevron's Gorgon liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant on Barrow Island off Western Australia's Pilbara coast were picked up by five consecutive passes of the Tanager-1 satellite since November last year.

The most recent, in late August, recorded an average emission rate of about 7.8 tonnes of methane an hour.

That is the equivalent of burning more than 110,000 kilograms of coal within a span of 60 minutes, calculated using an online tool by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

A satellite image of a gas plan with a heat map ranging from deep red to light blue over the centre of the facility.
Satellite imagery of the alert triggering methane emissions, captured in August. (Supplied: Carbon Mapper)

The repeated detections, the latest far exceeding a "super emitter" event under US EPA guidelines, prompted a United Nations (UN) warning to Chevron.

According to the UN, methane is responsible for about 25 per cent of global warming and is a greenhouse gas 80 times more harmful than carbon dioxide.

Chevron confirmed it had received the alert and was working with the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) to address it.

However, a UNEP spokesperson told the ABC it had not received formal feedback from Chevron or the Australian government, and would update its publicly available data when it had.

Chevron was similarly notified about methane emissions at Gorgon in July last year.

In a statement, Chevron said satellite monitoring came with "a wide range of uncertainty".

"We are engaging with the UNEP, and we are seeking further clarity on their data," a company spokesperson said.

#Gas #Oil #OilAndGas

Exxon blocks Kashagan's settlement proposal

ExxonMobil blocked a proposal for partners in the Kashagan oil field in Kazakhstan to make a settlement with ​the country's government over a disputed $5 billion environmental fine, ‌Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/exxon-blocks-kashagans-settlement-proposal-over-kazakhstans-5-billion-fine-2026-10-09/

#News #Oil

ConocoPhillips sees oil price floor rising to $70 a barrel

ConocoPhillips Chairman Ryan Lance said on ​Monday he expects the oil price floor ‌to rise to around $70 per barrel and sees a mid-cycle price of $65 to $70 per barrel ​for the US West Texas Intermediate ​crude benchmark.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/conocophillips-sees-oil-price-floor-rising-70-barrel-chairman-says-2026-10-05/

#Consolidation #Energy #Market #Oil #Price

Shale oil magnate says Exxon chief ‘threw me under the bus’ after $60bn takeover

In hindsight, he said he wished he had not exposed Pioneer employees to Exxon’s “notoriously cut-throat and dysfunctional culture” but instead pursued takeovers of other US oil companies such as Range Resources or Endeavour Energy Resources.

https://finance.yahoo.com/energy/articles/shale-tycoon-claims-exxon-ceo-124336695.html

https://www.ft.com/content/ad6d56fa-6a6e-43bd-8f12-205a3f94ac0e?syn-25a6b1a6=1

#Acquisition #Culture #Layoffs #Management #Oil

Shale Tycoon Claims Exxon CEO ‘Betrayed’ Him in $60 Billion Deal

In hindsight, he said he wished he had not exposed Pioneer employees to Exxon’s “notoriously cut-throat and dysfunctional culture” but instead pursued takeovers of other US oil companies such as Range Resources or Endeavour Energy Resources.

https://finance.yahoo.com/energy/articles/shale-tycoon-claims-exxon-ceo-124336695.html

https://www.ft.com/content/ad6d56fa-6a6e-43bd-8f12-205a3f94ac0e?syn-25a6b1a6=1

#Acquisition #Culture #Layoffs #Leadership #Oil

Shale Tycoon Claims Exxon CEO ‘Betrayed’ Him in $60 Billion Deal

My friends at Exxon have told me how bad things have gotten but this is unbelievable.

In hindsight, he said he wished he had not exposed Pioneer employees to Exxon’s “notoriously cut-throat and dysfunctional culture” but instead pursued takeovers of other US oil companies such as Range Resources or Endeavour Energy Resources.

https://www.ft.com/content/ad6d56fa-6a6e-43bd-8f12-205a3f94ac0e?syn-25a6b1a6=1

https://finance.yahoo.com/energy/articles/shale-tycoon-claims-exxon-ceo-124336695.html

#Culture #Layoffs #Management #Oil

Guyana 🇬🇾 Oil Production Declining 300 bopd…Every day!

Guyana’s extraordinary Flush Production is starting to decay quickly. Field wide the 2 latest development FPSOs have reached plateau and are witnessing daily oil production declines. Liza the first FPSO development is now firmly below 90,000 bopd with a yearly decline of 6.6%. The actual decline is further hampered by recent well issues with completion integrity and SCSSV reliability.

Field and reservoir staff are concerned that Guyana’s 5th FPSO Erria Wittu production will only buffer the legacy production declines and any production over the milestone 1,000,000 bopd will be short lived.

#Concern #Oil #Production

AI and Oil

Two concerns currently:

  1. AI is super concerning after some of the news this week that it could eliminate the entire human race in 10 years.. don’t understand how the company can force it on us and constantly question how we are using it. Not comfortable with it in any aspect of my life.

  2. Their rationing oil in the US at this point. The cost of an oil change is about to skyrocket. We won’t be able to afford to maintain our vehicles. Many top performers don’t live in a city where public transportation is an option when it gets to that point. Thank God, I only have one kid because the cost of daycare and an oil change in the same month means I don’t eat.

I don’t know what the best solution is, but in Office mandates has put a tremendous amount of stress on the workforce - America and the American companies are failing their people who are truly trying to push forward through some very challenging circumstances.

#AI #Cost #Oil #Stress #WorkforceReduction

ExxonMobil plans to automate half its Permian drilling rigs by 2028 (i.e. more with less employees)

By: Sheila Dang August 24, 2026

MIDLAND, Texas — In rural west Texas where oil rigs and pump jacks dot the sparse flat landscape, an ExxonMobil contractor sits in a small office on a drilling rig, using controls on a screen to operate robotic machinery and move tall steel pipes weighing roughly 2,000 pounds.

This work would usually require human overseers standing on the rig floor, the most common location for accidents on a rig.

Exxon, the largest oil producer by volume in the U.S., operates more than 30 drilling rigs in the Permian Basin, two of which are automated rigs with robotic equipment. By 2028, the company aims to transition half of its fleet to automated rigs to reduce the need for workers to perform potentially dangerous work and increase efficiency to drill wells faster, an executive told Reuters.

The Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico, the biggest U.S. oilfield, revolutionized energy markets two decades ago when development of the shale basin turned the U.S. into one of the leading oil-producing countries. But the relatively quick decline rate of shale wells has prompted drillers to develop more technologies to extract the oil. Some in the industry are also concerned about when the Permian’s production could begin to decline.

Exxon plans to grow its Permian production by almost 40% to 2.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2030. By contrast, rival oil major Chevron plans to hold production steady at about 1 million boepd, focusing instead on free cash flow.

The automated drilling rigs are part of a combination of technologies and strategies Exxon is using to boost production, said Bart Cahir, Exxon‘s senior vice president of unconventional, in an interview on the rig.

“When we take people off the rig floor, those same individuals are now able to think ahead and plan for the next operation and that combination gives us efficiency,” he said. “This is the productivity play.”

The company installed its first automated rig, supplied by drilling contractor Helmerich & Payne, last year. It drilled two miles horizontally underground in a little over six days, the third fastest time in Exxon‘s history.

Exxon‘s use of automated rigs in the Permian and its goal of expanding the fleet has not been previously reported.

Reducing risk and drilling more
On one of Exxon‘s automated rigs in Midland, a gate surrounds the drilling floor with a sign reading “Red Zone: Restricted Area.” A drawing of the Grim Reaper illustrates the risk that workers face around heavy equipment and pressurized systems.

Where workers would usually help move columns of drill pipe over two stories tall, robotic arms now position the pipes and connect them to a drill string. This allows drilling to continue deeper into the wellbore.

Employees on the rig communicate with Exxon‘s central operations team in Houston to determine the precise movements the robotic system should make.

Removing workers from the so-called Red Zones allows them to focus on other operations on the rig and reduces variability in the work, meaning more feet per day can be drilled, Cahir said.

“In the history of well drilling activity, about a third of significant injuries that occur happen on the rig floor,” he said. “By getting people out of that higher risk area, we’re essentially eliminating that risk.”

Exxon plans to expand automated rigs to a quarter of the fleet next year and then half of the fleet by 2028, Cahir said.

Exxon is also developing a suite of more than 40 technologies to double its oil recovery from the Permian by the early 2030s. The shale industry typically extracts just 10% of the oil in the ground due to the tight, compacted rock.

#Automation #Layoffs #Oil #Productivity #Safety

Remind me again, why do we need layoffs?

Shell Profit More Than Doubles to $9.8 Billion, Second-Highest on Record, as Iran War Lifts Prices

  • Profit of $9.8 bln vs expectations of $8.9 bln, $4.3 bln year ago
  • Share buybacks kept at $3 bln for next quarter
  • Highest profit, operating cashflow since 2022

https://energynow.com/2026/07/shell-profit-more-than-doubles-to-9-8-billion-second-highest-on-record-as-iran-war-lifts-prices/

#Company #Layoffs #News #Oil #Profit

WSJ: Chevron’s Mike Wirth and others warn global supplies are running low, with no respite in sight

Oil Executives Say the Great Fuel Crisis Is Here

  • Trump officials say the oil-market disruption is temporary, but Chevron’s Mike Wirth and others warn global supplies are running low, with no respite in sight.

https://www.wsj.com/business/energy-oil/oil-executives-say-the-great-fuel-crisis-is-here-b6b32030

By Benoît Morenne and Collin Eaton
September 14, 2026 at 5:06 p.m. ET

American oil executives warned for months that the prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz was bound to cause a fuel crisis. Now, they say it is here.

Commercial fuel stocks around the world have been depleting for more than six months, and strategic crude reserves cannot be tapped much further. Attacks last week shut down a crucial crude pipeline in Saudi Arabia that bypassed the Strait, stranding at least 2.5 million barrels a day from an already tight global oil market, analysts estimate.

“All these mechanisms helped to mitigate the price and supply risk,” Chevron Chief Executive Mike Wirth said Friday at an energy conference in Austin, Texas. “Those have largely now played out, and we don’t have nearly the buffers in the system that we did when it began.”

It is hard to predict where oil prices will go, he added, but at the moment, it is difficult to envision prices coming back down quickly.

“I wish I could tell you that I saw some reason why things would ease, but it’s difficult right now to see that happen,” he said.

Veteran energy advisers say that with no resolution to the Iran war in sight, the situation risks spinning out of control. Diesel prices have soared to a record $6.23 a gallon, while gasoline prices, which slipped below $4 a gallon this summer, have rebounded to $4.32. Some energy analysts say they have been fielding investor questions about when consumers pinched by high prices will start pulling back on new purchases.

The Trump administration has repeatedly promised Americans that prices at the pump would decline and that energy flows out of the Middle East would keep increasing.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said at a Houston G-20 event on Monday that “the prices in the prior administration were this high anyway” and that Americans would have paid those prices permanently because former President Joe Biden was “pursuing a policy of energy subtraction and shutting down refineries.”

“If you want to write about the prices, make sure you include the word ‘temporary’ because this is a temporary disruption,” Burgum told reporters.

The White House sees two major measures it can take to help ease prices: boosting production in Venezuela and increasing U.S. fuel-making capacity.

In recent months, U.S. officials have focused on striking deals expected to bolster Venezuela’s oil production. In early September, they met with U.S. refining executives to discuss expanding the nation’s fuel-making capacity. A senior U.S. official said the administration is pleased with the progress made on both fronts.

Energy executives and White House officials say they have maintained a continuing dialogue about the energy situation since the conflict began. CEOs including Wirth speak frequently with Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

Wirth said Friday that he had not spoken with President Trump since August 3, when the president said in a Truth Social post that the CEO had not credited his administration for the oil industry’s good fortunes. Trump called on Chevron and other oil companies to bring “consumer (retail!) Oil Prices DOWN, NOW!”

Some CEOs and energy advisers say they have grown alarmed in recent weeks as the conflict has intensified, with ships and energy infrastructure being targeted by both sides.

“The advantage in most negotiations usually goes to the side that has time on their side, and is willing to be patient,” said Wil VanLoh, founder and CEO of Quantum Capital Group, during the Austin conference.

Iran, he said, “is willing to suffer. Their people have already suffered a lot for many decades.”

China is partly contributing to the global supply squeeze. For months, the world’s largest oil importer relied on its own crude stockpiles for nearly half of its daily consumption, providing some relief to oil markets. In recent weeks, however, it has resumed larger purchases from international suppliers, analysts said.

U.S. crude prices have jumped 19% during the past three weeks to trade near $101 a barrel as attacks in the Middle East multiply.

Iran has targeted oil tankers traveling through the Strait, even after Trump and his officials said several vessels had been escorted undetected through the waterway.

Houthi militants have recently launched attacks from Yemen against Saudi Arabian infrastructure and military sites. They also damaged the East-West pipeline, which extends from the Abqaiq oil field to Yanbu al-Bahr, a major Saudi port city on the Red Sea.

Trump has vowed to impose economic pressure on Iran and has ruled out sending ground troops. He has said he expects the war to last until the November midterm elections, but investors say they believe it will continue well beyond that point.

“That was the signal this is going to stretch on,” said Dan Pickering, founder of Pickering Energy Partners.

Diesel supplies are also tight because of refinery outages following conflicts in the Middle East and Russia. Demand for the fuel is expected to rise as farmers who use diesel-powered heavy equipment enter harvest season.

“Diesel has no easy solution,” Pickering said.

Trump has said Ukraine must halt strikes on Russia that endanger global diesel supplies.

In March, the CEOs of the three largest U.S. oil companies, ExxonMobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips, warned Trump administration officials, including Burgum and Wright, that a prolonged closure of the Strait could lead to a shortage of refined products such as diesel.

Some executives have privately criticized Trump’s handling of the conflict.

At the conference Monday, Burgum rejected persistent speculation that the White House is seriously considering a temporary ban on U.S. exports of refined products such as diesel. He said the administration does not believe such a move would lower prices.

“We will do anything that helps the price at home,” Burgum said. “But we’re also going to be smart about it, and not just have some idea that if we stop exporting, that somehow magically is going to help the prices.”

#Oil #CrudeOilGas #Energy #Price #SupplyChain

OK, let's get in line

  • Costco raised its Kirkland Signature full synthetic motor oil to $57.99 and is limiting customers to two units every seven days.
  • Costco is also rationing some Mobil 1 motor oil, limiting six-quart cases to five per member.
  • Link between the price increases and shortages to sharply higher crude oil prices driven by the U.S.-Iran conflict.
  • Brent crude is up roughly 60% and West Texas Intermediate about 80% year to date, while U.S. gasoline prices have also climbed substantially.
  • Barron's argues that rising gasoline prices could become politically significant in the midterm elections, noting historically larger House losses for the incumbent party when gas prices rise.

https://www.barrons.com/articles/costco-motor-oil-6a560c5b

=====
Get in Line. Costco Is Rationing Motor Oil.
By Andy Serwer

Did you see that Costco Wholesale is rationing and massively raising prices for motor oil? The Auto Wire, which broke the story, reports that the retailer made the move with its Kirkland Signature full synthetic motor oil.

The 5-quart, two-bottle case now lists for $57.99, up from a price that hovered in the mid-$30s for years. Costco has also imposed a purchase limit, capping buyers at one transaction per membership and two units every seven days.

Between 80% and 90% of motor oil is made of base oil, a product obtained by refining crude oil.

Costco is also limiting at least one other petroleum-based product. Sales of a six-quart case of Mobil 1 are capped at five per member.

Costco didn't respond immediately for comment. So far, other major retailers, such as Walmart, haven't followed Costco's lead.

The move may have something to do with soaring oil prices, which have risen because of the U.S.-Iran conflict. Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate are up roughly 60% and 80%, respectively, year to date.

Gas prices are also sharply higher. The average price of a gallon of gasoline has risen 33.5% since Trump's inauguration on Jan. 30, 2025, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The average price is now just under $4.30 per gallon, according to the EIA.

Rationing and higher prices for motor oil is one thing, but soaring gasoline prices could have major implications for the coming midterm elections. According to Politico, the incumbent party has lost an average of 21 House seats in midterm elections dating back to 1978. During election cycles when gas prices rise, that average loss increases to 32 seats.

Back in June, Trump ordered the Justice Department in a social media post to investigate large oil companies he accused of gouging drivers.

The situation has even prompted comparisons with the U.S. gasoline shortages of the 1970s, when fuel was rationed based on whether a vehicle's license plate ended in an odd or even number. The last such rationing occurred in 1979. One of that year's biggest songs was Gloria G-ynor's "I Will Survive" - perhaps an appropriate song to queue up again.

#Oil #CrudeOilGas #PetroleumProducts #Price #Inflation

Exxon, Lyondell Among Suitors for Shell’s US Chemical Assets

Oil major Shell has drawn interest from potential bidders, including ExxonMobil and LyondellBasell ​for its U.S. chemical assets that could fetch up ‌to $8 billion, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

https://energynow.com/2026/08/the-suitors-exxon-lyondell-among-suitors-for-shells-us-chemical-assets-could-fetch-8-billion/

#Acquisition #Business #Energy #Market #Oil

Saudi Aramco sells crude oil to Asian refiners outside of Hormuz

Saudi Aramco offers 'crude oil' outside the Strait of Hormuz through private negotiating to some Asian refiners, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter. This is similar to Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) of United Arab Emirates.

https://www.marinelink.com/blogs/blog/saudi-aramco-sells-crude-oil-to-asian-refiners-outside-of-hormuz-105327

#AbuDhabi #Asia #CrudeOilGas #Oil #SaudiArabia