Oil

Russian private sector oil company Lukoil is in talks with Saudi Aramco over possible purchase of Saudi crude for Lukoil's refineries in Europe, company president Vagit Alekperov said on the sidelines of St. Petersburg Economic Forum.

State-owned Saudi Aramco has quietly embarked on an upstream expansion project that could provide up to 1.5mn b/d of new capacity from five offshore fields. But the company has declined to release information on the projects, and start-up dates are unknown

The nomination committee in Statoil (OSE:STL, NYSE:STO) recommends that the company's corporate assembly elects Jon Erik Reinhardsen as new chair of the board of directors.

Opec and a group of non-Opec producers today agreed to extend the cuts agreement that they implemented in January for another nine months with the same cut levels for each country.

The enterprises of the TATNEFT Company’s oil refining and petrochemical clusters celebrated a professional holiday - Chemist's Day.

TATNEFT company takes part in the XXVth International specialized exhibition "Gas. Oil. Technology" and the Russian Oil and Gas Forum, which takes place on May 23 - 26 in Ufa (the Republic of Bashkortostan).

The Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation has approved Gazprom Neft’s application for its project on “Developing Domestic Technologies and High-technology Equipment to Develop Reserves at the Bazhenov Formation” to be awarded the status of a national project.

Global oil supply and demand were almost balanced in the first quarter this year, with oil inventories increasing only by 100,000 b/d compared with the end of last year, according to the IEA.

Statoil expects production to rise to 125,000 b/d of oil equivalent (boe/d) by the end of the decade from 80,000 boe/d now.

The Saudi-backed government of Yemen has issued a tender for 75,000 bl of Shabwa blend crude for June delivery

azprom Neft has acquired a subsoil usage licence for the Novosarmaskoye field in the Orenburg Oblast.