US base oil and Opec production falls; BP find strength in depth; Libya has a new oil minister and China talks to Uganda.
Latest US Department of Energy figures made depressing reading with base oil production totalling 25.3 million barrels for the first half of 2009, some 7.5 million barrels less than the previous year and the worst volume for 16 years. The decline was blamed on the general economic environment and reduced lubricants demand, as well as the closure of two major refineries by Citgo and Marathon.
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Opec volume was also down in September, showing a 50,000 barrel reduction between August and September at 28.4 million barrels a day. The reduction was in response to a fall in demand, although at their quarterly meeting, oil ministers agreed to leave output targets unchanged with Saudia Arabia showing the highest spare production capacity.
The start of October heralded a new boss for Libya's national oil company. Ali Mohammed Saleh was appointed as head of the country's National Oil Corporation, taking over from former Prime Minister Shukri Ghanem. Saleh is viewed as a more conservative influence than the reformist Ghanem, who resigned some weeks previously.
BP had a particularly positive month of exploration with the announcement of two major deepwater finds. The first, at the beginning of September and described as a "giant discovery", was in 1,259 metres of water, some 400 km south east of Huston in the Gulf of Mexico. The well was approximately 10,685m below sea level - one of the deepest ever drilled in the industry.
The second site is in the 'Tebe' oil block off the coast of Angola in a joint BP exploration with national producer Sonangol. Also in an ultra-deepwater well at 3325m below sea level, the discovery has a confirmed capacity in excess of 5,000 barrels per day.
Meanwhile China's CNOOC company is believed to have started negotiations with UK-based Tullow Oil Plc with a view to joint development of a major Ugandan discovery. CNOOC are one of a number of organisations hoping to become involved in the $5bn project after Tullow announced finds in Uganda's Lake Albert region which could hold as much as 600 million barrels of oil.