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The Brazilian oil industry regulator (Agência Nacional do Petróleo, Gás Natural e Biocombustíveis or ANP) has approved six energy companies to bid for four pre-salt offshore blocks the Santos and Campos basins to be auctioned on 28 September 2018 under the framework of the fifth pre-salt round (5ª Rodada de Licitações de Partilha da Produção). These companies are namely: Shell, Total, BP, Germany’s DEA, QPI from Qatar and Chinese-owned CNODC Brasil Petróleo e Gás.

The latest round of this type was the 4th licensing round, which took place in June 2018 (4ª Rodada de Licitações de Partilha da Produção) and offered the Três Marias, Dois Irmãos, Uirapuru, Saturno and Itaimbezinho offshore blocks in the Campos and Santos basins, within the Pre-salt Polygon. Equinor won interests in the Uirapuru and Dois Irmãos production sharing contracts (PSCs). Uirapuru will be operated by Petrobras (30%) and Equinor (28%), ExxonMobil (28%) and Petrogal Brasil (14%) will also take part in the project. Equinor (25%), Petrobras (45%, operator) and BP (30%) will own the Dois Irmãos block.

The results of the 2nd and 3rd last licensing rounds were announced in October 2017. Six 35-year long PSCs were awarded of which three under the framework of the 2nd Production Sharing Bidding Round (Santos Basin) and three as per the 3rd Production Sharing Bidding Round (Santos and Campos Basins). The selected companies included Shell, Statoil, ExxonMobil, Petrobras and BP.

The Japanese Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has started to remove fuel assemblies from a sodium-filled storage tank at the 280 MWe prototype plutonium-burning Monju fast-breeder reactor (FBR), which has been operating only 250 days since its commissioning in 1995.

The 360 MW AES Shady Point coal-fired power plant is threatened and its shutdown could come as early as January 2019. The facility received a notification from Oklahoma Gas and Electric (OG&E) that the current 300-MW power purchase agreement (PPA) will not be granted a 5-year extension.

US-based social networking service company Facebook aims to use 100% of renewable-based energy to power its global operations by 2020 and vows to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 75%. As of 2017, the company’s electricity mix already includes renewable energies (51%), but also coal (14%), nuclear power (14%) and natural gas (13%).

US-based FirstEnergy Solutions will shut down four coal-fired and oil-fuelled power plants in 2021 and 2022 due to an increasingly difficult market environment. A deactivation notice has been sent to the regional power transmission organization PJM Interconnection (PJM) and the power plants which are considered for decommissioning are namely:…

According to the Russian Ministry of Energy, the country is on its way to achieving a record coal production of 420 Mt in 2018, exceeding the highest level of coal production achieved by the Soviet Union in 1988. Domestic coal miners are expected to dedicate RUB130bn (US$1.9bn) to the sector while the volume of washed coal production is scheduled to grow by 28% to 195 Mt in 2018.

Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) unveiled plans to construct two new condensate refineries with a total combined capacity of 200,000 bbl/d. They will be located in the Western Forcados Area (Delta delta) and in Assah North Ohaji South (ANOH, Imo state). Once built,…

The United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has lifted a stop-work order affecting most of the route of the 304-miles long (488 km) Mountain Valley gas pipeline (US). The stop-work order was placed in early August 2018 following an appeals court ruling that vacated federal permissions to cross national forest land.

Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor (formerly known as Statoil) expects to invest US$15bn in its Brazilian assets until 2030, while US$10bn have already been invested since 2001. Equinor’s assets in Brazil comprise the producing Peregrino field (85 km off Rio de Janeiro) and the second phase of the Roncador project,…