ADIPEC: Oxy’s Hollub wants Biden to stop hectoring OPEC and focus on U.S. oil

ABU DHABI (Bloomberg) - The world’s biggest oil and gas companies and many OPEC+ energy ministers are meeting in Abu Dhabi this week for the ADIPEC conference -- one of the first major in-person events for the industry since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies are likely to maintain their plan of raising output by 400,000 barrels a day, according to the United Arab Emirates. The group has so far ignored calls from some nations, including the U.S., to increase production faster in an attempt to control surging prices. Saudi Arabia expects inventories to rise over the next few months, reducing the need for OPEC+ to boost supply quicker.        

The conference, running from Nov. 15-18, is taking place in the wake of the COP26 climate talks and with energy prices soaring. Benchmark Brent crude has climbed almost 60% to above $80 a barrel, while gas prices in Asia and Europe hit record highs recently.

(Timestamps in UAE.)

BP Expects ‘Robust’ Oil Prices for Longer (2:41 p.m.)

Oil prices are likely to remain high for longer, BP Plc CEO Bernard Looney said.

“There’s a constructive market at the moment and I think you can expect oil prices to remain robust for some time to come,” he said.

Still, the company is being run to break even at an oil price of $40 a barrel since “there are many uncertainties,” Looney said. Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s CEO Vicki Hollub said her company also had a $40 breakeven oil price.

Looney also called the recent COP26 summit “a success” because it included a pledge from nations to cut emissions of the greenhouse house. Methane “is now on the global agenda,” he said. “We have more ambition, not enough, but we have more ambition.”     

Biden Should Focus on U.S. Oil, Not OPEC, Oxy Says (1:50 p.m.)

President Joe Biden should focus on raising U.S. oil production rather than putting pressure on OPEC+ to pump faster, Occidental’s Hollub said. If the administration wants more supply, they should ask U.S. producers first, she said.

“If I was going to make a call, I’d make a local call first,” she said. “I wouldn’t make a long-distance call.”

OPEC Under-Production Not an Issue: UAE (1:45 p.m.)

Some OPEC nations producing below their quota isn’t a concern, UAE Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei said.

Some of the group’s members, including Angola and Nigeria, have struggled to keep up with the planned production increases following investment constraints and export suspensions.     

He also said that oil and gas will always be used for energy, and it’s “delusional” to think they will be phased out.  

Poor Nations Need to Pump Their Fossil Fuels (1:20 p.m.)

“We aren’t going to allow oil and gas not to be developed because of the energy transition,” Equatorial Guinea’s energy minister, Gabriel Obiang Lima, said. “We are a small and poor country. If the U.S. and others won’t help us develop it, maybe China, Brazil, the Middle East or Turkey will.”

Barkindo Says ‘Alarm Bells’ in Glasgow (1:10 p.m.)

This year was the first of the COP talks where the oil and gas industry was targeted but had no place in the conversation about slowing climate change, OPEC Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo said.

“For us attending in Glasgow, this was an alarm bell,” he said. “I left Glasgow with this sobering feeling.”

IEA Call to Stop New Oil Spending Not Helpful: Oman (12:40 p.m.)

The International Energy Agency’s call this year for an end to new oil and gas exploration “wasn’t very helpful,” Oman’s energy minister, Mohammed Al-Rumhy, said.

The Persian Gulf sultanate pumps about 650,000 barrels of crude a day. The Paris-based IEA, which advised rich countries on energy policy, said in May that stopping of all new investment in fossil fuels was necessary to neutralize carbon emissions by 2050. 

Ukraine Says Russia Creating ‘Artificial Shortage’ of Gas (12:12 p.m.)

Russia is creating “artificial shortages” of natural gas and should increase supplies to Europe to ease the energy crisis, according to the chief of Ukraine’s state-run energy company.

“If they abandon this abusive policy, there will be no problem for Europeans this winter,” Yuriy Vitrenko, CEO of Naftogaz Ukraine, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

Ukraine is pushing to remain a key transit route for the fuel, just as Russia is going ahead with the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany. The link is completed and designed to bypass Ukraine, but it still lacks final regulatory approvals.