Recommended by "Lel Bruce Peto" 2000 oil chronology reading

Recommended by "Lel Bruce Peto" 2000 oil chronology reading..


 Oil & Gas Chronology :  Year 2000, partial.


August 2000

August 1 ExxonMobil announces that it expects to attain cost savings of 
$4.6 billion as a result of its recent merger, up 65 percent from its 
original estimate. Cost-cutting measures include a staff reduction of 
19,000 from the original combined total of 123,000. 

August 1 The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) 
officially tells member governments to cancel plans to raise production. 
On July 17th, with the price of the OPEC Basket above $28.00 since July 1, 
OPEC President Ali Rodriguez told members in a letter to prepare for an 
increase by the end of July, provided the OPEC Basket price stayed above 
the $28.00 ceiling in OPEC's Aprice band. The price then fell below the 
threshold. 

August 10 General Motors and ExxonMobil announce that they are jointly 
developing a gasoline processor for fuel cell-powered vehicles. The 
processor will create a stream of hydrogen derived from the gasoline which 
will run the fuel cell, which could be twice as efficient as a regular 
gasoline engine. General Motors says it plans to put fuel cell-powered 
vehicles on the market in significant numbers by 2004. 

August 10 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez meets with Iraqi President 
Saddam Hussein in Baghdad as part of a tour of members of the Organization 
of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). He is the first head of state to 
visit Saddam Hussein since the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. 

August 10 Shares of Petrobras, the Brazilian oil company, begin trading on 
the New York Stock Exchange, as the Brazilian government sells a 16.6 
percent stake in the majority state-owned firm, raising more than $4 
billion. 

August 16 ExxonMobil announces that it and four other refiners will ask 
the Supreme Court to review a lower court ruling upholding Unocal's patent 
covering reformulated gasoline. The Supreme Court will announce this fall 
whether it will hear the case. 

August 17 The Wall Street Journal reports that, in a reversal, President 
Sapamurad Niyazov of Turkmenistan is again actively pursuing the Trans-
Caspian Gas Pipeline. The shift in policy reportedly is communicated 
during a meeting with the Turkish ambassador in Ashgabat. 

August 20 Ten people die as a result of a gas pipeline explosion outside 
of Carlsbad, New Mexico. The pipeline, which carries natural gas from West 
Texas to California, is owned by El Paso Energy.

August 22 PetroChina, China's largest oil and gas company, and the Hong 
Kong firm Hutchinson Whampoa announce the formation of a joint venture 
which will develop a business-to-business Web portal for oil and gas 
businesses in China. PetroChina says it expects the move to reduce its own 
procurement costs by 5 to 10 percent. 

August 23 The Energy Information Administration reports that crude oil 
stock levels in the United States have fallen to their lowest level since 
1976. Crude oil for October delivery closes at $32.02 on the New York 
Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), up 80 cents. 

August 24 Enron announces an agreement with German regulators which will 
allow the company to begin supplying the municipal utilities of two German 
cities with natural gas. As with other members of the European Union (EU), 
Germany must open part of its natural gas market to foreign competition to 
fulfill its EU commitments. 

August 24 Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz says Iraq will not 
cooperate with the United Nations Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection 
Commission (UNMOVIC), the body created by the United Nations to replace 
the former United Nations Special Commission on Iraq (UNSCOM). 

August 25 President Clinton begins an official visit to Nigeria. In the 
first six months of 2000, Nigeria ranked as the fifth largest supplier of 
crude oil to the United States, accounting for about 10 percent of 
American imports. 

August 25 BP Amoco wins the right to retain its 10 percent stake in the 
Russian oil company Sidanco, when Sidanco shareholders vote to allow the 
former rival to receive newly-issued shares in exchange for a subsidiary 
it lost in a disputed bankruptcy proceeding.  

August 25 Florida Power and Light (FPL), the largest electric utility in 
the United States, files with the Florida Public Service Commission for 
approval to raise electricity tariffs in the state. The company cites 
increased costs for natural gas and fuel oil. 

August 28 Futures contracts for heating oil on the New York Mercantile 
Exchange (NYMEX) reach their highest price since October 1990, trading as 
high as $1.00 per gallon before falling back to close at 99.9 cents per 
gallon. The price rise reflects low stock levels for heating oil in the 
United States, which have fallen almost 40 percent in relation to the same 
period last year.

August 30 The Department of Energy awards contracts to create a 2- million-
barrel reserve of heating oil. The oil will be stored in privately owned 
facilities in Woodbridge, New Jersey, and New Haven, Connecticut. 

August 31 PetroChina announces that it plans to eliminate 50,000 jobs 
annually over the next five years in a move to cut its operating costs. At 
the end of 1999, PetroChina had a staff of 480,000.

Received on Sunday, 23 February 2003 12:41:08 UTC