Thursday, 23 July 2026

Worldwide liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade climbed 6.3% year on year to a record 437 million tonnes in 2025, the strongest annual gain since 2022, Oil & Gas Journal reported, citing the International Gas Union's (IGU) World LNG Report 2026.

Missile strikes on Qatar's Ras Laffan complex are expected to hold roughly 12.8 million tpy of capacity offline for 3 to 5 years, according to Oil & Gas Journal.

The IGU counts existing and under-construction projects and puts global LNG supply capacity above 700 million tonnes by 2030, about 40% higher than 2025 levels.

Shell projects consumption could grow by around 65% from 2025 levels to nearly 700 million tonnes by 2050, with the increase tied largely to economic growth in South and Southeast Asia and falling domestic gas output in major importing regions, Oil & Gas Journal reported.

ADNOC cleared a USD 6.2 billion final investment decision to develop the Umm Shaif Gas Cap in waters off Abu Dhabi, according to World Oil. Output is set to exceed 600 MMscfd of natural gas and associated gas liquids once the project ramps by 2030.

Ownership splits four ways: ADNOC Offshore takes the controlling 60% stake, with TotalEnergies on 20% and Eni and China National Petroleum Corp each holding 10%.

Most of the capital sits in three engineering, procurement and construction packages worth USD 5.1 billion for new offshore facilities. A separate USD 365 million program funds drilling and integrated services, with ADNOC Drilling tasked to sink 14 wells across 18 months on three offshore rigs already in the fleet.

Production at Umm Shaif dates back to 1962, making it the oldest offshore field still pumping in Abu Dhabi.

World Oil reported that the sanction feeds ADNOC's aim of 47 million tpy in marketable LNG capacity by 2035. The company's newly secured Bab Gas Cap concession is projected to add a further 1.5 Bcfd of gas and associated liquids.

Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) awarded Halliburton a multi-year agreement to support development of the Ahmadi Innovation Valley (AIV), a research and development center for Kuwait's upstream oil and gas sector, according to World Oil.

The center will act as a hub for developing and commercializing technologies for brownfield, greenfield and unconventional reservoirs, World Oil reported. The AIV supports KOC's work to address increasingly complex operating conditions while expanding in-country research and technical capabilities.

Under the agreement, Halliburton will provide technologies and engineering expertise through a program focused on applied research, prototyping, pilot testing and commercialization, according to World Oil.

Jeff Miller, Halliburton chairman, president and CEO, said the award reflects the depth of long-term collaboration with KOC and a shared focus on advancing technology development in Kuwait's energy sector.

Fatalities in the offshore marine contracting industry rose from three to seven in 2025, with four of them offshore, according to IMCA's latest Annual Safety Statistics Report. The rise came even as headline injury metrics improved over the same period.

The Fatal Accident Rate increased from 0.30 to 0.69, according to the report. Over the same period the Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate fell from 0.30 to 0.27, and the Total Recordable Injury Rate reduced from 1.10 to 0.98.

Contractor members reported 268 lost-time injuries and 996 total recordable injuries during 2025. The report covers more than 1.02 billion working hours submitted by 167 contractor members.

Line of fire incidents remained the leading cause of lost time injuries, according to IMCA, reducing from approximately 52% of cases in 2024 to around 41% in 2025. The Safety Observation Frequency Rate fell by around 20%, from 482.1 to 387.1 observations per 200,000 hours worked.

Mark Holmes, IMCA's Safety and Security Manager, said safety performance should no longer be judged primarily by injury frequency rates but by how effectively companies control the hazards most likely to result in death or life-changing injury.

Egypt's parliament approved four oil and gas exploration and development agreements on Wednesday, one of them a North Sinai project involving Perenco, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

One agreement clears EGAS and Perenco North Sinai Petroleum Inc. to explore the Al-Fayrouz onshore area of North Sinai, the outlet reported. The four approvals cover exploration and development work.

Perenco North Sinai Petroleum, a subsidiary of Egypt Kuwait Holding, has operated the North Sinai concession since 2014, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

The Al-Fayrouz block was awarded in June 2025 through EGAS's 2024 global bid round, the outlet reported. The operator plans to conduct a 3D seismic survey and drill one exploratory well.

Fluxus has acquired a stake in the Petrororaima joint venture in Venezuela and plans, with its partners, to lift crude output to 120,000 bpd within five years, according to World Oil. Current production sits at roughly a quarter of that target.

The field lies in the Orinoco Heavy Oil Belt and was historically operated by ConocoPhillips until the Venezuelan government expropriated the Houston-based company's local assets in 2007, World Oil reported.

World Oil described the transaction as the third oil deal to surface in the past week, with further agreements expected before a July 28 regulatory deadline.

Lionheart Capital, Pacific Coast Energy Co. and Fluxus are among the wildcatters moving on what World Oil characterized as a U.S.-steered reopening of Venezuela's oil sector and an easing of sanctions under acting President Delcy Rodriguez, who is supported by the Trump administration.

Venezuelan crude output topped 3 MMbpd in the 1990s, according to World Oil, and current daily production runs at around 1.2 MMbbls.

Ukraine appears to be changing the way it attacks Russia, according to Semafor Net Zero. Kyiv is letting up on its strikes against Russian oil refineries, a shift that Semafor reports is easing Moscow's fuel crunch and pushing gas prices back down.

The pullback on refineries comes as Ukraine redirects its fire toward Russian shipping and commercial infrastructure. More than 120 Russia-linked vessels were reportedly targeted in the last two weeks, Semafor said.

Ukraine is also striking warehouses belonging to Russia's largest online retailer, described by Semafor as Russia's Amazon equivalent and a major employer.

Seismic data firm TGS opened three multi-client projects covering waters off Ghana, Norway and Canada, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported.

Off Ghana, the opening phase of the Gulf of Guinea 2D-cubed project blends 5,500 sq km of existing 3D data with over 14,700 km of 2D lines, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported. The merge yields a single 25,300 sq km 3D volume across the Keta Basin.

The Norwegian effort, called Atlantic Margin South Reprocessing, spans more than 23,000 sq km of 3D data in the Norwegian Sea, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported. First deliverables are due in the third quarter of 2026, and the complete dataset is set for the second quarter of 2027.

Off Newfoundland and Labrador, TGS opened Orphan3D PSDM Phase 2, which reworks roughly 13,300 sq km of 3D data in the Orphan Basin, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported.

TGS said the three projects carry industry funding and are meant to sharpen subsurface understanding and cut exploration risk in each area.

Capstone Energy+ will supply a C600 Signature Series microturbine to Maurel & Prom under a 36-month lease for a flare gas recovery project at an onshore oilfield in Gabon, according to World Oil.

World Oil reported that the project is due to be commissioned in November 2026.

The equipment is being delivered under Capstone's Energy-as-a-Service model through a lease-to-own arrangement, which lets the operator install the system without large upfront costs, according to World Oil.

Vince Canino, president and CEO of Capstone Energy+, said using flare gas cuts emissions and supplies power at remote sites, according to World Oil.

Woodside Energy Ltd. wants to run seismic surveys off the northwest coast of Western Australia both to hunt for gas and to keep watch over offshore carbon storage sites, according to Mongabay.

The plan pairs gas extraction with carbon capture and storage, in which carbon dioxide from production is pumped into rock layers far below the seabed, Mongabay reported.

Seismic surveys fire sound blasts that hit 230-250 decibels and carry across open ocean for thousands of kilometers, Mongabay reported.

Scientists point to a 2010 episode in Bass Strait, between Victoria and Tasmania, when scallop fishers began pulling up piles of dead and broken shells after two seismic surveys had swept the same waters months before.

A study led by Ryan Day put scallops and southern rock lobsters through seismic airgun pulses, according to Mongabay. The scallops showed severe physiological stress and higher death rates, while the lobsters suffered weakened immunity and sensory damage that hurt their balance, Mongabay reported.

Equinor and its partners made an oil discovery near the Johan Castberg field in the Barents Sea, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

The discovery came in the Skrugard North Tubaen prospect through wildcat well 7220/5-EC-2 H, drilled about 6 kilometers north of the 7220/8-1 discovery well and 240 kilometers northwest of Hammerfest, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported.

Preliminary estimates put the size of the find at between 1.2 and 1.7 million standard cubic metres of recoverable oil equivalent, which corresponds to 7.6 to 10.5 million barrels of oil equivalent, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

The well was drilled by Transocean's Transocean Enabler semi-submersible drilling rig.

The licensees are considering whether the field may be tied back to the Johan Castberg field, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported.

Equinor operates the production license with a 46.3% stake, partnered by Var Energi with 30% and Petoro with 23.7%, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

The well is the 17th exploration well in production license 532, awarded in the 20th licensing round on the Norwegian Continental Shelf in 2009.

QatarEnergy has extended force majeure on liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies to buyers in South Korea and India, with notices that had been due to expire in August and early September now pushed to mid-September, according to trade sources cited by Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

Three trade sources described the extension, with one saying the earlier deadlines had moved to mid-September, OEDigital reported. The disruption traces to the Iran war, which OEDigital reported has forced QatarEnergy to shut liquefaction trains, declare force majeure on deliveries and suspend exports.

Qatar accounts for about a fifth of global LNG trade, according to OEDigital.

QatarEnergy LNG Marketing and QatarEnergy Trading continue to offer some of their LNG tankers for lease through October, on spot deals lasting 30 to 90 days, drawn from a current operating fleet of nearly 70 LNG carriers, OEDigital reported. Trade sources said the move could signal expectations of a prolonged disruption, given the spot deals run for 30 to 90 days.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) will spend USD 6.2 billion to develop natural gas at the offshore Umm Shaif field, Semafor Net Zero reported.

TotalEnergies of France, Italy's Eni, and China National Petroleum Corp are partners in the development, according to Semafor Net Zero.

Output should top 600 million cubic feet a day starting in 2030, a volume Semafor Net Zero put at almost 10% of the UAE's current daily consumption.

The field feeds a wider push to cover domestic demand from industrial growth and AI infrastructure, and to grow liquefied natural gas exports from the UAE and ADNOC-backed LNG projects in Argentina and the US, per Semafor Net Zero.

Saipem has confirmed the completion of a key offshore installation campaign for the Neptun Deep natural gas project in Romania, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

The campaign, carried out by the Saipem 7000 heavy-lift vessel, included the installation of a 7,500-tonne jacket and a 9,000-tonne topside for the production platform, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

Saipem's engineering, procurement, construction and installation contract was awarded in 2023 by OMV Petrom and Romgaz. Its scope includes installation of a 160-km, 30-inch offshore gas pipeline and fibre-optic cable linking the platform to the Romanian coast.

The jacket was fabricated at Saipem's Arbatax yard in Italy and secured to the seabed with eight steel piles. The platform topside was built at Saipem's Karimun yard in Indonesia.

Neptun Deep is expected to become the European Union's largest offshore gas project, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.