Africa

BP plc and its partners on Friday said they have sanctioned the initial phase of an innovative cross-border natural gas export project, which would produce from a deepwater development offshore West Africa beginning as soon as 2022.

Energy engineering giants McDermott International Inc. and Chicago Bridge & Iron Co. NV (CB&I), which agreed to merge last December, announced steps Tuesday to integrate operations and set the leadership structure once the combination is completed as expected by mid-year.

A unit of Chevron Corp. and affiliates of Argentina’s state-controlled YPF SA have struck a long-sought agreement for the U.S. major to provide an initial $1.24 billion to further development of shale oil and gas resources from the Vaca Muerta formation in Argentina’s Neuquen province.

Any U.S. oil and gas wildcatter looking for a way to get on the Forbes annual Billionaires list might take a hint from some of the interests among those who made this year’s list, published Monday. They like oil and they like natural gas, and many of them especially like shale.

Chevron Corp. is directing about $7.5 billion for U.S. upstream projects in 2013, with most of the focus on deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM) projects, the producer said.

Chevron Corp.’s Angola LNG (liquefied natural gas) liquefaction project in southern Africa is speeding toward first cargo some time during the second quarter. While capacity contracting has long been under way on the company’s Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG projects in Australia, not so with Angola LNG, which was conceived years ago as an LNG supplier to the United States.

Chevron Corp.’s Angola LNG (liquefied natural gas) liquefaction project in southern Africa is speeding toward first cargo some time during the second quarter. While capacity contracting has long been under way on the company’s Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG projects in Australia, not so with Angola LNG, which was conceived years ago as an LNG supplier to the United States.

South Africa-based Sasol has chosen southwestern Louisiana as the site for a gas-to-liquids (GTL) facility. The project is slated to be the first plant in the United States to produce GTL transportation fuels and other products.

A shift by global natural gas and oil companies to unconventionals, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and the deepwater has lifted prospective value growth across the upstream sector by 23% from a year ago, according to new research by industry consultant Wood Mackenzie.