Tuesday, 1 September 2026

Eni S.p.A. has closed its entry into the OFF-5 offshore exploration block in Uruguay's Punta del Este basin, taking a 50% share and operatorship, according to Oil & Gas Journal.

The transaction, previously signed, was finalized with Miwen SA, a subsidiary of YPF SA, and the Uruguayan National Oil Co. (ANCAP), Oil & Gas Journal reported. Miwen SA retains the remaining 50% interest in the block.

Operatorship places Eni in charge of exploration work programs on OFF-5. The block sits in the Punta del Este basin offshore Uruguay.

India's state-run producer ONGC will spend 70 billion rupees (USD 736 million) on underground crude storage in southern India with capacity for about 13 million barrels, according to World Oil.

Chairman Arun Kumar Singh disclosed the plan to reporters in New Delhi, saying the land has been acquired and construction will start soon.

The addition would sit on top of an existing strategic stockpile of roughly 39 million barrels, equal to about a week of imports, World Oil reported.

Separately, the company is negotiating with international firms to establish an overseas trading desk covering crude, refined fuels and natural gas, a step aimed at tighter control over procurement, sales and price risk. Dubai and Singapore are under consideration as the base for the venture, which is targeted to trade crude, petroleum products and gas worth 50 million tons a year.

Thousands of Indigenous leaders and activists gathered in the Amazonian city of Puyo, Ecuador, to chart a path against oil and mining expansion, according to Inside Climate News.

The gathering came as governments push that expansion forward, Inside Climate News reported.

Inside Climate News reported that the attendees fighting oil wells, mines and other threats to their homelands did not travel to the city to lobby politicians at an environmental conference hosted by governments. They built the conference themselves.

Egypt expects the Damietta regasification vessel, damaged in a drone attack in July, to return to service in the fourth quarter, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported.

Petroleum Minister Karim Badawi said the damaged vessel did not impact Egypt's gas market.

Badawi also pointed to the upstream record, citing 112 new oil and gas discoveries over the past two years and crude output on an upward path, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

One of those is Eni's Denise find in the Mediterranean, estimated to hold about 2 trillion cubic feet of gas.

On production, Egypt brought BP's Fayoum-4 well online at 80 million cubic feet of gas per day.

Work is underway to link four Cypriot offshore fields, starting with Cronos, to the Zohr field's facilities and the Damietta LNG export plant.

Chevron is finalizing a deal that would add operating rights to two giant oil fields in Venezuela's Orinoco Belt, according to World Oil.

The expansion forms part of a push by U.S. President Donald Trump to ramp up oil production in Venezuela, World Oil reported.

Chevron is the only U.S. oil major operating in Venezuela, and the company has been in talks with acting President Delcy Rodriguez and her government about new fiscal terms, according to the same report.