7 December

Chevron is continuing with its multi-billion-dollar expansion programme at Tengiz oilfield in Kazakhstan despite rise in coronavirus cases at the project site. The local authorities posted medical personnel at the field to curb the spread of coronavirus as 140 new cases were reported in November, while scores of new cases were registered at the site last week.

OPEC and its allies agreed to expand the oil production cuts until January, after which the member countries will increase output by a marginal 500,000bpd. However Middle East countries such as Saudi Arabia and UAE are wary about going ahead with expansion projects and investment in oil sector as they are waiting for the pandemic induced global oil demand slump to recover sizeably.

Oil companies in Russia are gearing up to expand their output by 125,000bpd from next month in the light of OPEC members agreeing to increase oil production by 500,000bpd from the same month. The surge in production is not expected to have a huge effect on the oil market, even as the country’s November output remained stable at 10 million bpd.