4 September

UK-based exploration and production (E&P) firm EnQuest’s overall oil and gas production in the first half of the year (H1 2020) stood at 66,000 barrels per day (bpd). The company reported revenue of $450.7m, down from $858.2m in H1-2019, due to the low commodity prices as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. EnQuest said that its operations had been “materially unaffected” by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Nigeria’s oil minister Timipre Sylva said that the federal government is no longer fixing the pump price of petroleum products in the country. The African country had been spending about NGN1tn ($2.63bn) per annum subsidising fuel prices but the global oil price collapse as a result of the coronavirus pandemic had made removing the subsidies “inevitable”, Reuters reported citing Sylva. Nigeria is the largest oil producer in Africa.

Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil major Saudi Aramco is reportedly reviewing its plans to “expand at home and abroad” in the wake of sharp drop in oil prices as well as a heavy dividend burden. The oil major is now slowing down a $6.6bn proposal to add petrochemical output at its Motiva refinery in the US state of Texas, reported WSJ citing people familiar with the matter.