Europe

Tanker transit statistics via the Suez Canal broke historic records in April as Europe sought to import more crude oil and LNG from the Arab Gulf to replace traditional supplies from Russia.

Russia is pouring investment into liquefied natural gas projects as it seeks to leverage the world’s largest natural gas reserves together with the logistical advantages of delivering it at a competitive price to Asia and Europe along the now-navigable Northern Sea Route.

The EU sees the tightening requirements for gas investments, along with the cancellation of planned gas projects, as being in favor of renewables.

Europe’s gas pipeline wars are in a muddle as the US throws its support to the EastMed project to supply Israeli gas to Italy, transiting Greece and Cyprus; while at the same time the US is sanctioning the Russian-German Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which is already 90% complete.

Sandvik and Van Oord’s announcements come a week after oil major BP said it’s slashing 10,000 jobs.

Gas demand is expected to grow by just 2 Bcm in 2020, down from previous expectations of 6 Bcm. The Netherlands, UK, Germany, and Spain are expected to see the biggest impact.

More than 200 companies could become insolvent in the UK and Norway. This number may be larger when including the rest of Europe.

The newly formed independent producer will operate assets in UK, the Netherlands, Norway, and Denmark.

Royal Dutch Shell CEO Ben van Beurden is to speak at the opening plenary session at SPE Offshore Europe 2017, which is being held in Aberdeen from 5–8 September.

CEO Bob Dudley, who calls BP’s UK North Sea business one of its “crown jewels”, will address hundreds of delegates at the opening plenary session at Europe’s foremost exploration and production technical conference and exhibition.